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Cincinnati Bengals to Debut White Helmets for 2022-2023 Season

There's a new tiger in the Cincinnati jungle.

Jul 15, 2022 at 10:09 am

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Photo: Juan Camilo Guarin, Unsplash

The Cincinnati Bengals presumably will take elements of the white tiger's look for the team's new helmets in 2022.

Last season brought new stripes. This season will bring a new color.

The Cincinnati Bengals announced July 14 that the team would introduce a white tiger-style helmet to the mix for the 2022-2023 season. The Bengals debuted new uniforms in 2021-2022 for the first time in 17 years but did not change the iconic orange helmet at that time.

In January 2021, the NFL announced that it would finally lift a long-held rule that prohibited secondary helmets. NFL.com writer Kevin Patra wrote at the time that the rule was in place for safety. The alternate helmets must be identical to primary helmets except for color and must be worn during practices before the game in which they'll be used.

The 2022 season will be the first in which the secondary helmet ban is gone. Franchises had until July 31 of last year to inform the NFL of their intent to use the additional helmet option for this season.

The Bengals did not release photos of the new white helmet, but the team did make a splash online with social media posts and a video on the Bengals' website around the theme "white Bengal." The video imitates nature programs that discover or monitor animals in the wild, claiming "Recently, photo crews captured rare footage of a new and exotic Bengal species spotted right here in The Jungle," referencing Cincinnati's Paul Brown Stadium. The video then cuts to footage of a white tiger.