Halftime is a time for adjustments. If something wasn’t working in the first half, potential fixes can be made during the break.

And that doesn’t just apply to the teams on the field. Networks sometimes need to switch things up on the fly as well — especially if they fail as miserably as ESPN’s experiment with the color of a particular graphic during the first “Monday Night Football” broadcast of the regular season.

At some point during the offseason, somebody decided to jazz up the down-and-distance marker in the bottom right corner of the screen by making it yellow. Um, sure, whatever.

Here’s how that graphic looked during the first two quarters of the Houston Texans-New Orleans Saints game:


You know, it’s always good to try new things. Problem is, though, this isn’t really a new thing. Yellow is the color of penalty flags and has traditionally been used in TV graphics to indicate that such a flag has been thrown on the play.

That caused much confusion and/or annoyance among viewers. And that led to a lot of complaining on social media.

Hey @espn



Yellow is for flags



Other colors are for other things — Stuckey (@Stuckey2) September 9, 2019

I cant be the only guy that thinks theres a penalty every play with this color on the down and distance. Could be any other color pic.twitter.com/YOKOpXiETq — DUBBY (@DubDotDUBBY) September 10, 2019

RT this if you want @ESPN to change the color of the down and distance graphic on MNF.



We must stop this horrendous yellow penalty flag pump fake. — Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) September 9, 2019

.@espn please take this yellow-green down-and-distance color and throw it into the ocean. It looks like a flag pic.twitter.com/jNyMSY7kZA — Riley McAtee (@RileyMcAtee) September 9, 2019

Like 80 percent of my timeline has complained about the ESPN down and distance marker being bright yellow and therefore looking like the usual graphic for “the ref threw a flag” and I really have no idea how multiple people looked at that and approved it. — Rodger Sherman (@rodger) September 9, 2019

me after every play during #MondayNightFootball



flag on the play

flag on the play

flag on the play

flag on the play

flag on the play

flag on the play

flag on the play

flag on the play

flag on the play

flag on the play

flag on the play

flag on the play

flag on the play — Dave Schmock (@Schmocki22) September 10, 2019

By the time the teams took the field for the second half, the offending yellow box had been replaced by a much more satisfying white outline.

Our ESPN production team is aware of the feedback on the #MNF down and distance graphic. We have called an audible and adjusted for the 2nd half of #HOUvsNO and for the #DENvsOAK game to follow. New look pictured here. pic.twitter.com/SWLKKuW87w — bill hofheimer (@bhofheimer_espn) September 10, 2019

“Our ESPN production team is aware of the feedback on the #MNF down and distance graphic,” ESPN’s Bill Hofheimer tweeted. “We have called an audible and adjusted for the 2nd half.”

And, thus, order was restored to the football-viewing universe.