In case you’re wondering as you watch tonight’s Monday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings…
The Bears are wearing a football-shaped “VMH” patch on the left shoulder of their jerseys throughout the entire 2025 NFL season in honour of late owner Virginia Halas McCaskey, who passed away in February at the age of 102. The tribute makes its regular-season debut tonight, though it has been worn throughout the NFL preseason.
The patch is nearly identical to the design the Bears wore when they mourned the loss of her father, team founder George S. Halas, upon his death in 1983. It features her monogram in navy blue on an orange football, with navy blue stitches and a white outline.
The letters are arranged as a three-letter monogram: V-M-H, with the “M” outlined in white and centred, a nod to the Bears’ convention of placing the family name in the middle on these patches. For Virginia Halas McCaskey, that means M (McCaskey) in the middle, flanked by V and H. Similarly, George Halas’ 1983 patch prominently displayed an “H,” flanked by a “G” and “S.”
“We thought it’d be appropriate to have a patch that mirrored her dad’s after he passed away. It came out great. We like the look of it,” Bears chairman George McCaskey said. “That was important to the family – that we do something that’s appropriate. We knew that the last thing she would want was any recognition or tribute, so we thought it was appropriate but understated.”
Halas’ patch was replaced in 1984 by a permanent “GSH” memorial, which currently resides within the stripes on their left jersey sleeve. This memorial remains in place alongside the new VMH memorial this season.
They will also wear their standard navy blue helmets with their navy blue home or white road jerseys and their corresponding white or navy blue pants in every game, shelving their orange alternate helmets and jerseys and 1936 throwback uniforms as tribute to the franchise’s matriarch.
“She said to me many times, ‘If it were up to me, we’d have the same uniform at home and the same uniform away,” McCaskey added of his mother. “(She) deferred to us in those choices, so we thought this would be a nice way to pay tribute to her.”
Photos courtesy of @ChicagoBears and @patrickfinley on X/Twitter.
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