The Bengals are getting new turf this season. That sometimes means a new field design, but the team has opted not to do anything drastic. After considering several options for the midfield logo — including the team’s leaping tiger and tiger head secondary logos, and even just a depiction of the team’s helmet — they’ve decided to stick with their primary “B” logo.
Still, a few small changes have been made. See if you can spot them:
Did you spot all the changes? Here they are:
- The striping in the end zones has been adjusted.
- The yard marker number font has been changed.
- The midfield logo is slightly smaller. (This page refers to new NFL guidelines since the team’s previous field redesign that “shrunk the logo space by about 200 square feet.”)
(As you can see, the “Old” mock-up shows the field surface in varying/alternating shades of green, but I don’t think it was that way in real life, so that’s not changing.)
The Bengals should have went “leaping tiger”. That “b” logo has always been meh
Agreed.
And I do not like the idea of the yard markers matching a team’s bespoke number font. It is another trend that needs to die. I am all for variability but what happens when the Bengals change uniforms?
The graphics seem to show a slight change in the orange color, but I don’t think the Bengals have changed it in their logos or uniforms.
They should do a wishbone C like the Reds, with stripes in it!
I think the Bears might have a problem with that…
Disappointing, the B logo is bland. I have no idea why they use that as their primary mark when both the tiger head and leaping tiger are excellent logos. It is almost as if they just are leaning into “tiger stripes are our thing” so much that they prefer to be associated with tiger stripes as opposed to a tiger itself.
I totally agree, such a missed opportunity. Using an initial to denote anything but a city or university name is just lazy. The Colorado Avalanche do this too and it annoys me.
The NFL shield at the 25-yard line is now white instead of red/white/blue.
Paul, from the AMA:
“…hypothesis/hypothesis…”
They should have expanded the end zones to CFL-size to give Burrow more room to find his receivers.
Now that made my day!
The Brown family considers the B their personal logo so we probably won’t see the leaping tiger again for a long time. Bummer.
I’ve never understood the Bengals fascination with the B logo until now, thanks for the explanation.
When Paul Brown was in charge he wanted absolutely nothing extra on the field.
Bengals fans should be happy for anything the Brown family adds to the field. But yeah, I’ll miss the leaping tiger.
A tiger would have been nice but I am sure the sideline and stand sheets (for lack of a better word right now) are still full of glaring and leaping tigers. The B might be Boring but it spells Bengals to me.
The wordmark in the endzone looks thicker, and the kerning looks tighter, at least between some letters, like between the G and the A. It looks like they hit Bold on the wordmark.
Or I could just be seeing an illusion created by having more black in the striping change.
If it is different, is this a style change to the wordmark on the whole, or just in this application?
Not sure how I feel about this trend of matching the yard marker numerals on the field to the team’s jersey numeral font. On the one hand, that traditional yard-marker font is what most of us grew up watching, so like block numerals it just feels right, but unlike block numerals it doesn’t necessarily look better. Since custom numeral fonts have become so ingrained in a team’s identity since NFL teams started using them in the mid-1990s (where prior to that the use of block numerals was utilitarian, like grey facemasks), it does make some sense to use the same font for the yard markers on the home field, and there’s little or no aesthetic harm to it.
Then again, if the Bucs had used the alarm-clock numerals on the field…..
When do they start painting giant ads on the field?
The NFL doesn’t even have ads on the uniforms. Why would you expect to see them on the field?
I certainly hope on-field ads do not become a thing, but the NBA and NHL had on court/rink ads before jersey ads
I think a big swoosh at the 50 yard line would qualify as an ad.
Hopefully never. Keep it clean. There is already way too much advertising in every other sport while owners make millions more. Can’t watch baseball anymore with the ads on the mound, 1st and 3rd base line, jerseys, outfield wall and behind home plate.
The alternating color on the old field was sometimes visible, sometimes not. Depended on lighting, but there are certainly 1:00 games with good lighting where it’s very apparent, so that’s what I went with for the GUD field images.
I see more orange/less black. And a smaller team logo at the 50 is a good thing. Some of those were getting very large.
The B logo is such a yawner.
Bengals font is dated. It was probably dated when they first implemented it. Most of their latest uniform is a legit improvement over the last one so I give them a break. A new logo and typeface would be nice though..
I had the opportunity to walk on a turf field for the first time in a while, and it occurred to me that these changes are not as simple as a new paint job. Temporary changes (bowl game, etc.) may be painted over the existing material, but it appeared to me that the field markings are cut out of the green turf, and filled in with the colored turf. Makes you wonder if small changes are worth the trouble, or if they cut out big chunks and replace them with the new graphics?
On the topic of yard marker fonts, has anyone else noticed that the jaguars still use the font from their two toned-helmet days on the field? Like, how does that happen? How lazy do you have to be? It’s also just such an ugly and unnecessarily jagged font. It makes me so mad and it’s the only thing I notice lol
On the yard lines (5, 10, 15…) there’s also no hash mark going ‘up the field’
The NFL logo in all white looks lo-fi – have to wonder if that’ll be the case IRL
Adjusted the stripes in the end zone … have yet to fix the striping on the white pants.
I hope they never change the (arguably) best helmet in the NFL.
Regarding the Bengals, it never makes sense to me why some teams fill their entire end zones with team-color graphics. The home-team players — wearing the same colors — are essentially camouflaged in the end zone, making them harder to see for fans in the stands, especially for those in the upper levels.