CINCINNATI — On July 14, the Bengals announced designs for a "white Bengal" look would be coming soon and fans have been salivating ever since.
On Friday, the team released the first look the highly-anticipated white Bengal helmet.
A deal's a deal. 🤝
Presented by Swift Meats pic.twitter.com/miE5FLlzdS
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) July 22, 2022
The team tweeted they would release the white helmet design if a tweet featuring a photo of Joe Burrow got 10,000 likes. It took less than an hour for the tweet to surpass that bar and the Bengals wasted no time in tweeting a gif of the helmet, captioned "A deal's a deal."
The helmet features the orange Bengal "B" square in the front of the helmet, but beyond that it's devoid of color and comprised of a stark black-and-white striped design.
Just last year, the NFL finally announced it would allow teams to wear an alternate helmet for the 2022 season, rescinding a rule implemented in 2012 that mandated all teams to have just one helmet design.
Despite fans clamoring for the design for years, the Bengals have never donned a white helmet. The team's iconic black-striped helmet didn't even appear as part of their uniforms until the 1980s.
The new helmet design has been announced as speculation has abounded on the topic of corporate naming rights for Paul Brown Stadium. Hamilton County has confirmed the team is exploring a potential naming rights deal for the stadium.
Paul Brown Stadium got its name when the Bengals purchased the naming rights from Hamilton County in a 1997 transaction valued at $5 million. The team retained the ability to sell those naming rights at any time during its 27-year lease and receive more than 70% of the revenue from such a deal.
Two-and-a-half decades later, the Bengals lease is close to expiring, Hamilton County is preparing to spend more than $500 million on improvements to the stadium and gaming companies have cracked the NFL's longstanding opposition to marketing deals with its teams.
