The Cincinnati Bengals have announced they will wear their all-white uniforms and helmet this Sunday when they host the Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday afternoon.
It will mark the first time this season the team is wearing the “white bengal” look.
In addition, the team is asking their fans to dress in white for the game (is it just me, or are NFL teams increasingly calling for fans to “dress” in a certain color for specific games, much like college football has been doing for years?).
WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite WearWhite…
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) October 22, 2024
This will be the third season the Bengals will wear the all-white alternates, having added the second shell for the 2022 season. And they’re actually very successful while wearing them (which I’ll get to in a second).
For this weekend’s uniform announcement, however, the Bengals actually referred to these as “Icey” whites — again, using a term for the uniforms more closely associated with college teams than pros.
Icey whites 🧊🥶
Uni Combo | @PennStationSubs pic.twitter.com/6KUR2XcNTh
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) October 22, 2024
As far as the team’s record while wearing the “Icey” whites? It’s a perfect 4-0 so far.
In its debut, a Week 4 matchup against the Miami Dolphins, the Bengals paired their new alternate hats with what was formerly their Color Rush uniform. While not technically a CR game, the Dolphins wore their aqua jerseys, pants and socks.
Following that successful debut, the Bengals again paired the white helmets and CR uniforms to defeat their division rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 11. Again, while not technically a CR game, the Steelers broke out their all-black alternate uniforms for the game.
After successfully lobbying the NFL to permit the team to pair their white helmets with their regular white jerseys (technically a violation of the alt-helmet rules), they defeated the Los Angeles Rams. In that game, the Rams wore their all-blue uniforms and socks.
They wore their white hats and all-white uniforms one more time in 2023, in a Week 13 matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars, a contest they would win in overtime. Perhaps coincidentally, the Jaguars went mono-black, making all four games in which the Bengals wore their White Tiger uniforms matchups against teams who also went mono-color (from the neck down).
Earlier this season the team announced they will only wear the White Bengal uniforms a single time for the 2024 season. So if they defeat the Eagles, they’ll improve to 5-0 in the all white uniforms.
I know some of you do not like the White Bengal helmet (or the full uniform), but I think it’s a great look. Most “animal” teams may use said animal for a logo, but the Bengals take it up a notch, actually resembling the beast for which they are named. This is definitely one of my favorite alternate looks.
With the Bengals introducing orange pants for this season, the team will wear their alternate orange jerseys twice (which is why they’re only wearing the White Bengal look just once). The opened the season in all-orange (except for their socks, which were black), and will wear the orange jerseys again in Week 13, against the Steelers. As of now, we don’t know which pants they’ll pair with the orange jerseys, but it’s hoped they’ll wear either their white or black pants, rather than doing a second “orange out”.
What do you guys think of the white bengal uniforms? And how do you feel about professional football teams asking fans to dress a certain way — is this something fun and a way to further engage fans or should this be more appropriate for a college or high school team?
Both the white tiger look and asking fans to wear this or that is the stuff of amateur sports … not the pros – unless it’s Winnipeg ; )
Unfortunately the tail wags the dog now with Nike and the NFL. They had so much success with their college football program, they’re not just moving it all over to the pros. Ironically it feels like college football is returning to more traditional NFL style looks while the NFL goes the opposite direction.
But yeah, the rah rah stuff feels very amateurish.
If the Bengals were giving away, say…white replica jerseys, a helmet hat or something like that, I guess that’d be a bit easier to swallow.
Hoping the Birds don’t counter with G/G/B!
Always thought it would be difficult to wear a particular color for a game when it could be very cold. I’m not going out investing in a white jacket.
I have a white and black pinnie for ultimate frisbee, I’ll might end up throwing that on over whatever my outer layer is, or wear a very light gray hoodie if weather permits.
Sigh.
I still think the Packers helmet could have used the yellow stripe. But the effect inside the stadium Sunday was better than I expected.
Also made it easy to pick out the Texans fans. Weren’t as many of those as with division games, of course. I even saw one guy in whtie Bears sweatshirt, trying to fit in.
the GUD still lists the Eagles pants as “TBA”, is there anyone else secretly hoping they go green/green/green? Thus keeping up the trend of teams going mono-color against the all-white Bengals, and also reviving a uni combo that’s been unused for 22 years?
Just standard operating procedure for GUD. They typically don’t update until team specifies the full combo.
I’d say not to get your hopes up… but, hey, the Patriots just paired silver/grey pants with white jerseys for the first time since ’99… so, anything is possible.
Exactly. If a team hasn’t announced a uniform schedule (many don’t) or otherwise identified the specific uniforms it will wear for any given game, the GUD won’t put in a placeholder. Most times the pants will turn out exactly as we’d expect, but if a team has more than one option, they won’t list pants (or jerseys) until it’s known for sure. Two excellent examples were the Steelers the past two weeks. Until the team announced the Super Bowl IX throwbacks and CR, the GUD kept the entire uniform template blank.
If you look at this week’s games (link), you’ll note most of the pants are still “TBA” and in several cases — more than usual — the entire uniform template is blank. Those won’t be filled in until the team has made known which specific jersey/pants combo they’ll wear. Sometimes, teams don’t announce pants at all, and those then get filled out once the games begin.
Yeah I know it’s a longshot. Can’t stop me from getting my hopes up anyway though!
GUD does occasionally put in a place holder and then change the uniform when team announces a different combo. Just this past weekend GUD initially had the saints in their regular all black uniform before updating to the gold alts.
I was thinking the same thing. Now I really want to see the Eagles go mono-green. Heaven help us if they go mono-black though!
They’re definitely not going mono-black. The GUD has them in green helmets and jerseys. (link)
The only questions are the pants and socks. Based on their recent proclivities, unfortunately, I would bet they’ll go green/green/white/white. They’ve worn white socks for every game this season, regardless of pants color.
The white Bengals helmet and uniform sounds like a good idea. And the whole getup probably looked great on a computer screen during development. But this is one where the sum is not greater than the parts. I love the helmet, but everything paired together is… boring.
I think it’s substantially better now with the white helmet, but yeah the white jersey, especially the Color Rush jersey before they just started wearing the normal away, is really underwhelming and dare I say flat out bad.
I love the white tiger look, its fun something that the NFL kind of lacks when it comes to uniforms though that’s been changing since they changed the helmet rule. I like the idea of including fans into it, its engagement and its also an atmosphere thing. The last time I saw the ravens in person was primetime and though it wasn’t a wear this color type of affair, the interactive billboard and the glow in the dark staff they gave out at the gate really made it a special event and a night I wont ever forget beyond just seeing LJ in person and seeing them win the division.
I never knew there were two different white jerseys paired with these helmets.
Typical of the Bengals to misspell the word “icy”.
Idk, they still look like zebras to me. I think I prefer them in orange/white/white rather than these. But I understand that a lot of fans like them, so I’m okay with it even it’s not what I would want.
I guess you shouldn’t really think too much about these things, but whenever I see these uniforms I think about how the icy-whites are mostly inbred designer-cats, and they tend to have more health problems and far less genetic diversity than the classic orange guys. If you’re into conservation and real tigers, this is basically the opposite of what you want. They do help sell zoo tickets and merchandise, though, because they are very striking.
HEY EVERYBODY, GET EXCITED! WE DEMAND YOU TO GET EXCITED! WEAR WHITE TO THE GAME OR MISS OUT ON ALL THE FUN! YOU DO WANT TO BELONG TO OUR GROUP, RIGHT? Just the thought of all these horrible team marketeers not giving a hoot about football or the Bengals high fiving each other if all the fans come dressed up in all white makes me sick. What is this, a cult? I would wear an all orange and black Bengals outfit, just to thwart their silly little grade school dress up party plan.
Also I would eat a chili cheese coney at the game and certainly not an East Coast Sub from a company named after a torn down building in New York City, as the marketeers are trying to promote.
This is one “white helmet” I can go with because the concept actually makes sense. The “white tiger” thing, although gimmicky, works.
Now we have the Rams going mono-bone uniforms complete with bone colored socks……….
link