Bears–Cardinals rivalry
Bears and Cardinals face off during the 1926 season. | |
Chicago Bears
Arizona Cardinals
| |
| Location | Chicago, Phoenix |
|---|---|
| First meeting | November 28, 1920 Cardinals 7, Staleys 6 |
| Latest meeting | November 3, 2024 Cardinals 29, Bears 9 |
| Stadiums | Bears: Soldier Field Cardinals: State Farm Stadium |
| Statistics | |
| Meetings total | 96 |
| All-time series | Bears: 60–30–6 |
| Largest victory | Bears: 53–7 (1941) Cardinals: 53–14 (1955) |
| Most points scored | Bears: 53 (1941) Cardinals: 53 (1955) |
| Longest win streak | Bears: 7 (1940–1943) Cardinals: 4 (1950–1952) |
| Current win streak | Cardinals: 1 (2024–present) |
The Bears–Cardinals rivalry is a National Football League (NFL) rivalry between the Chicago Bears and the Arizona Cardinals.
It is the oldest rivalry in the NFL and features the only two remaining teams from the league's inception in 1920. At that time, the Bears were known as the Decatur Staleys, and the Cardinals were the Racine Cardinals. (Though they were known as the "Racine" Cardinals, the Cardinals were based in Chicago, on Racine Street. In 1921, the Staleys moved to Chicago, and the matchup between the teams became known as "The Battle of Chicago" for 38 years, making it the first true rivalry in the league's history.
The rivalry diminished after the 1959 NFL season, when the Cardinals relocated to St. Louis. After the re-location, the NFL treated the Cardinals and Bears like any other inter-divisional pairing for scheduling purposes, resulting in the teams playing much less frequently. With the completion of the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, the enlarged NFL seriously considered (in addition to at least four other possible solutions) an alignment for the new National Football Conference that would have placed the Cardinals and Bears in the same division. Ultimately, this alignment was not chosen, and instead the Bears were placed in the NFC Central and the Cardinals in the NFC East. When the Cardinals moved to Arizona in 1988, the rivalry was further diminished.
The Bears lead the overall series, 60–30–6. The two teams have not met in the playoffs.