Chicago Bears called for bizarre penalty in horrendous conditions against 49ers

The Chicago Bears were penalised for perhaps the most bizarre reason during their Week 1 game against the San Francisco 49ers.

The Chicago Bears are looking to take a step forward as a franchise this season after taking a few steps back in recent years. In 2020 they went 8-8, and in 2021 they went 6-11 under the watch of their new quarterback Justin Fileds who they will be hoping to guide them towards success.

But whilst they might be looking to get better play from Fields now that he’s had a year to get used to things in the NFL, there are still some things holding them back, and that is their own incompetence.

The Bears’ opening game saw them take on the San Francisco 49ers in some horrendous conditions at Soldier Field, but both sides tried to make the best of the situation despite the pouring rain, although the Bears tried to go that little bit extra to try and gain an advantage, and got caught for it. 

With the Bears looking for a field goal late in the 2nd quarter, kicker Cairo Santos and punter Trenton Gill lined up as they normally would, but tried to dry the area around them with a towel in order to give Santos better footing and to make sure he wouldn’t fall over.

However, the referees spotted what they were doing and penalised them, forcing them out of field goal range and making sure they would have to punt rather than attempting to get the points

Video: Chicago Bears penalised for having a towel in the wrong place:

@abc pic.twitter.com/WtyCmMvLQb

Here's the Bears holder trying to dry the field with a towel LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOO https://t.co/5iocwmlr03 pic.twitter.com/y5Bi5hwo52

Perhaps this was a case of not knowing that there was such a rule in place (which if we’re honest, we didn’t know of such a rule either,