There are a lot of bad NFL jerseys out there. Even with the league slowly moving back towards an appreciation for retro uniforms that worked well in the 90's, plenty of teams still try things that just, politely put, do not work at all.
That – and the fact that there's literally nothing else to talk about right now – is why USA Today put together a comprehensive list of the worst uniforms in NFL history. They went team-by-team and, outside of a few teams that don't have alternates, found a truly hideous jersey for each. And their pick for the Bears was the only true choice: those hideous orange ones. Here's what they said:
Bears hideous orange jerseys voted worst in franchise history
2004-2011 orange alternates
I understand these are a tribute to the pre-1950 Bears teams that wore orange as a primary color. The problem is, Chicago is an old school club with an iconic look and little tolerance for nonsense (aside from the last 35 or so years of on-field results). In these jerseys, they’re a mouth hole and a candle away from being jack-o-lanterns.
USA Today is absolutely right – there isn't a single argument to be made otherwise. The orange jerseys are just awful, and I will take that opinion to my grave with me. No one is meant to use that shade of orange as a primary color, and the Bears decided to do it anyway. They've made so many bad on-field decisions over the last 20 years, and continuing to wear the orange jerseys a couple times a year is still far and away the worst. They're not even ugly in a way that could age well and become a cult classic down the road – they're just ugly.
At least back then, they still wore blue helmets. Now they're pairing the ugly orange jerseys with equally ugly orange helmets, which not a single person on this planet asked for. Not a single person on any planet asked for it, really. Thank you for raising awareness, USA Today. Our battle against the orange jerseys never ends.