{"id":764027,"date":"2026-02-20T07:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764027\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T07:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:13:15","slug":"will-colts-surprisingly-no-longer-be-the-nfls-only-indiana-based-team-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764027\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Colts surprisingly no longer be the NFL\u2019s only Indiana based team?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Wolf Lake is roughly 22 miles from downtown Chicago, but again, Windy City traffic has to be factored in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While this one hasn\u2019t been finally decided yet by any means, as Illinois lawmakers will likely at least propose a rebuttal, this appears to be further down the tracks than just purely posturing and leverage by Bears ownership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">This actually has a real chance of happening though, and barring meaningful action by Illinois lawmakers (i.e., regarding providing more tax money for new stadium construction), is no longer out of the realm of realistic possibility:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/why-chicago-bears-moving-indiana-151712872.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGG7N8FcKeQ12frR2oxUJF1hrG1Yv7SS6eoaz31xc_DHWbvv7N7wAqsmL-g22wYMEp6uWxVUo_HfBDjWA3_9a-BHOmVnMSKTfGbskmIejDHKTcscCDKsX1Nk3isbEiohUHXhQra30148e7sF4O_X83nOrbK7kzK9TkKdmQjlRcRI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Per The IndyStar\u2019s Joel Erickson<\/a>, the Colts stance on the Bears joining them in the State of Indiana so far remains unchanged\u2014simply wishing them the best going forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">By NFL rule, Hammond is within a 75 mile radius of downtown Chicago, meaning that the Bears already hold the marketing rights because it\u2019s in their exclusive jurisdiction regardless:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">\u201cThe Colts do not purchase advertisements in the area, do not hold events in the area and do not send team marketing representatives to the area,\u201d writes Erickson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While it seems unlikely that they\u2019ll be called the Indiana Bears or Hammond Bears anytime soon for fear of revolt by the always passionate Chicago Bears faithful, it does mean that there could potentially be a 2nd NFL team with both its domed stadium and team headquarters based in the State of Indiana.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The two squads that faced off in Super Bowl XLI could possibly find themselves as in-state neighbors soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wolf Lake is roughly 22 miles from downtown Chicago, but again, Windy City traffic has to be factored&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[2005,7,2004,392,3562,2381,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-764027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-colts","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-indianapolis","11":"tag-indianapolis-colts","12":"tag-indianapolis-colts-news","13":"tag-indianapoliscolts","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116101723335703170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}