The NFL and Disney used Fanatics Fest in New York to announce the Disney Champion NFL Collection, a limited-edition apparel line pairing every franchise with a character from the Disney, Pixar, Marvel or Star Wars catalogs. Adam Schefter reported the details, including a Disney Fan Draft hosted by Roger Goodell that revealed the first eight team pairings.
Chicago was not among them. Las Vegas was, drawing Darth Vader. So was Tampa Bay, which got Captain Hook and required no imagination whatsoever.
The remaining pairings arrive next month.
For the Bears the category is settled and the choice is not. It will be a bear. Disney happens to own a lot of them.
The candidate pool is deeper than it looks
Humphrey the Bear dates to the studio’s shorts of the 1950s, a bumbling park-dwelling character with real vintage appeal and almost no name recognition among anyone under 50. Brother Bear produced Kenai and Koda, which would be a defensible pick and a forgettable one. Disney also owns the Muppets, and Fozzie Bear is legitimately famous, though a stand-up comedian in a porkpie hat is a strange fit for a franchise built on defense.
Narrow it to brand power and two names remain.
Baloo carries The Jungle Book and TaleSpin behind him, plus one of the most recognizable songs in the studio’s catalog. He is also large, unbothered and physically imposing, which lines up with how the Bears like to see themselves.
Winnie the Pooh is the commercial answer. Pooh is among the most merchandised characters on earth, and a Pooh jersey would sell to people who have never watched a snap of football. The aesthetic fit is worse. Nothing about a soft-hearted bear preoccupied with honey says Monsters of the Midway.
Either works. One of them sells more.
The league has gotten very good at this sort of thing. It leaned hard into the attention around Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift when that arrived and converted it into a new audience. Pointing the same machinery at the Disney fan base is the same play with a larger target.
Timing is the last question. The Hall of Fame Game is August 6, which is the first moment all offseason that a meaningful number of eyes land on football at once.
