In case you missed the precursor to this story about the Cincinnati Bengals seeking to alter the alternate helmet protocol by wearing their white striped helmet with a primary jersey, please give that a read.
It looks like the Bengals request has been heeded:
… The look you seek is your primary whites 😏 pic.twitter.com/7raJAfuDHB
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) August 8, 2023
While there has been no specific announcement from the team, the above tweet sure seems like the team has gotten approval from the NFL to pair the new alternate helmet with their primary white jersey — which looks to be an exception to the NFL’s protocol, currently requiring alternate helmets to be paired only with a team’s alternate, Color Rush or classic (throwback) uniform.
The new pairing would take place on September 25th, when the Bengals are scheduled to host the Los Angeles Rams.
If the Bengals do have approval, this would make the first time the NFL has allowed a team to pair an alternate helmet with a primary uniform.
As discussed in the article linked above, this could open up a Pandora’s Box in terms of teams petitioning the NFL to wear alternate helmets with primary uniforms, and could produce some interesting (and potentially awful) uniform combos.
Leave a reply to this comment with what combo you would like to see with an alternate helmet. I’ll start. Jets white/green/white with the throwback helmet
Carolina in black/white/white/black is the ‘best’ I could come up with.
Baltimore Ravens wearing no helmets at all.
Let’s hope the Lions follow suit and request to wear their new alternate helmet with any combo other than their dogcrap mono-grays…
I bet this is a work around where they designated their primary white jersey as their color rush jersey as well, as other teams have done in the past (the Patriots, for example, designated their primary road jersey with alternate white pants as their color rush uniform). Therefore, although it’s their primary, it’s also their alternate, therefore not violating the rule that alternate helmets can only be worn with alternate jerseys.
Yes, looking at a few Cincinnati journo’s tweets this looks to be what they’ve done. They’ve designated their 4th ‘alternate’ jersy as the primary white, and therefore it’s allowed to be worn with the alternate helmet. I think the letter to the NFL etc is all a bit of showmanship and theatre.
I’m surprised more teams haven’t done this.
Ummmmmm no. The Bengals’ color rush jersey is different from their regular white jersey. You’re overthinking this. link
The Bengals white Color Rush is a holdover from their previous set, but had to be retained when they switched to their new look because it was less than five years old. Now that the five years is up, they’ve scrapped it and designated their primary white as their color rush, as well. I’m not overthinking anything, just applying what seems to be the simplest explanation for the situation. Occam’s Razor.
If you replace the primaries you really should also be allowed to replace the secondaries at the same time, even if they aren’t five years old yet.
The Bengals cr uniform is one of the only times I actually do not like block numbers on a uni. Seemed out of place but they were still an upgrade over the past uni set. I think this will be a more cohesive white Bengals uniforms
The NFL is starting to become like college with all these uniform combos. Not a fan.
This, exactly this.
Didn’t the Panthers wear their black helmets with their primary black jerseys last year? Why were they allowed to do that?
They declared their all black uniform their “Color Rush” (as opposed to the black jersey/silver pants, which is their primary home); so they were *allowed* to wear their alternate helmet with their black jersey (but it had to be the mono-black CR one);
Basically they were playing pretty fast and loose with the alternate helmet rules — which seems to be what Cincy is doing here, although it’s possible Cincy has gotten an exemption as last year they wore their white helmet with their CR uniform (which is different from their all white primary road uniform). We’ll see how this all shakes out.
The Bengals knew the decision well before the filmed their request being sent to the NFL. It is all about storytelling and make believe in entertainment. The NFL played along, it makes for a good story to those who want to believe in it. The NFL gave up caring about 1 helmet as they see it moves merch for replica alternate jerseys. As for recognizability (is that a word?) and uniformity they shrug and think ka-ching.
*they
In an ideal world, the Bengals would wear the white helmet and white jersey away at Cleveland. And Cleveland would wear their new white helmet and white jersey away at Cincinnati.
I’ve thought the same, except most likely the home team in all white. Both teams in orange helmets is always difficult to watch because of the lack in contrasting colors. I think in a perfect world the alternate helmets would be used anytime there is a matchup between teams with the same helmet colors. Last year, I remember seeing the Bears vs Texans in matching navy helmets and I couldn’t help but think how much better the game would’ve looked if either the Bears wore their orange or Texans wore their red. But alas, that would make too much sense for the people who make these rules.
“Both teams in orange helmets is always difficult to watch because of the lack in contrasting colors.”
If you’re watching a Bengals/Browns game in/from the 70’s on a Philco, sure. But today? Nah.
I love the Bengals helmet for its’ ability to instantly identify them as the team of the screen.
The white alt does the same I suppose…but it just doesn’t look nearly as good – but better better than an orange Bears dome.
I agree, and hope they allow alternate helmets to be used for contrast to make it easier to tell teams apart. As more people begin to watch on mobile devices, they may take in to consideration the smaller screen and allow alternates for this purpose. My go to example is always Cowboys v Lions, as the similar color schemes make it seem like a scrimmage, and it’d be nice if one team used an alternate (the Bears v. Texans or Broncos is a good example of the same effect). I don’t think allowing an alternate helmet color, but making teams use the same logo or a palette swapped version is a slippery slope to the college world where it sometimes takes me a bit to realize who’s playing.
In an ideal world, the Bengals would wear the white helmet NEVER…NOWHERE!
Same goes for the new Browns bucket.
I mean they obviously designed their current white set to be paired with a white helmet, in expectation of the one shell rule being lifted. This just makes sense, and the fact that it wasn’t the case last year seems a bizarre instance of lack of communication on what the intended branding was between the Bengals and the NFL uniform policy folks.
Presumably they always wanted to have a mono white option. And when wearing the orange helmet with the white jersey they’d pair that with black pants.
A win for the Bengals looking good, but a loss for the NFL as a whole if it creates too much mix and match with the uniforms. Dilutes the brand. My preference is just a standard home color, white road, and then on thanksgiving weekend let all the team roll out a throwback (or fauxback for certain teams).
No to this. The absence of orange from the set makes it look more like zebras than tigers. The orange and black is a great combo and every part of this looks collegiate and amateurish, “wannabe stormtroopers”. In this case, the stark black block numbers actually look worse, like this is a practice uniform, but nothing an NFL team would wear on game day. The NFL used to have the look that young kids aspired to copy; now the adults are taking cues from the kids.
Who Dey?
Exactly!
It wasn’t that long ago that the NFL said no way to the LA Rams when they wanted to NOT wear their leftover St.Louis blues for 1 game…and we got treated to this:
link
Now the NFL says sure, wear whatever top you want.
That’s probably apples to, well…oranges.
I’m good with the Broncos using their new white helmet with their primary white. But, use the current helmet decals.
I honestly think the Lions alternate helmet might look pretty good with the blue jersey. As long as they went with gray pants. Or even white jersey over blue pants.
Love it. Eliminates the CR uni which was a slightly worse and dated version of what they already wear. They will have less combinations now despite what the math wizards on here are claiming. Streamlines everything. The white helmet is beautiful and a huge hit with a lot of tthe fanbase. For a team that historically has been a mess visually they finally seemed to have figured it out.
If nothing else, this move removes the color rush uni from the bengals set (presumably) and a actually streamlines their wardrobe into one cohesive design.