Background
For home and away jerseys in North America, historical convention has often dictated the colors used by most teams in a given league. "White home" is the convention in baseball (MLB), basketball (NBA, NCAA basketball) and college hockey. "White away" is the convention in football (NFL, NCAA football) and NHL.
The conventions are not rules, and often the home team has the first choice of color, with the visiting team forced to choose a contrasting color. For this reason, teams often create a third jersey in a third color, to ensure that they will always have an appropriate selection for the game.
In US sports, throwback jerseys are generally only used for special team games and not for the "third" purpose.
Read more about this topic: Third Jersey
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