For the first time in their 100+ year history, the Chicago Bears will wear a helmet colour other than navy blue.
Today, the Bears unveiled a brand new alternate *orange* helmet, their familiar wishbone-C logo on the sides recoloured navy blue and trimmed in white. Navy blue facemask, “BEARS” wordmark logo on the front bumper. No striping.
Chicago will wear the new orange helmet for two games in 2022; they will be paired with their already existing orange alternate jerseys and white pants. The first game will be at home on October 13 vs the Washington Commanders; they’ll break ’em out again two weeks later at Dallas against the Cowboys on October 30.
“We believe we have the best uniforms in sport, certainly among the most iconic,” said Bears Chairman George H. McCaskey to ChicagoBears.com. “So, we’re not looking to overhaul it. We just want to make enhancements to the existing look from time to time and we think this is a great enhancement. I’m very excited for this modification. I like that it’s staying within the traditional Bears look. We’re excited about them and hope the fans will be too.”
Chicago has just gone 1-5 while wearing orange jerseys since re-introducing them as an alternate in time for the 2018 season. Before that, the Bears wore an orange alternate jersey from 2004 to 2009. The Bears commonly wore an orange top during their early years as a franchise; from the early 1920s to 1939, the club wore orange jerseys in addition to white and navy blue, in some seasons exclusively wearing orange.
The Bears are the latest in a quickly expanding group of NFL teams to introduce a secondary alternate helmet for the 2022 season; the league’s lifting of the “one-helmet rule” has seen a bevy of new lids for football clubs this season, including black helmets for the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Jets, and Carolina Panthers; throwback helmets for the Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys, and New England Patriots and many others (complete list here).
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