LAKE FOREST – While it officially comes out around 7 p.m. Wednesday, schedules for the Bears and other teams in the NFL traditionally get leaked in the 24 hours before.
That’s the case once again in 2021, though the team made one of their games officialy before the announcement on Wednesday morning.
The NFL confirmed the first game for teams, with the Bears facing the Rams at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on Sunday, September 12th at 7:20 PM.
It marks the third time in the last four years that the Bears have started their season in primetime. In 2018 the opening on a Sunday night against the Packers in Green Bay then hosted them for the season opener on a Thursday evening in 2019.
This will also be the fourth-straight year the Bears will face the Rams in primetime, doing so for the third time in California. In 2018, Matt Nagy’s team defeated Los Angeles 15-6 at Soldier Field en route to an NFC North title, but lost a Sunday night rematch at the LA Coliseum in November of 2019.
On October 26, 2020, in their first-ever game at SoFi Stadium, the Bears lost to the Rams 24-10 on Monday Night Football.
A few other games have been leaked out as well, including the Bears’ first game in Las Vegas against the Raiders on October 10th along with a Thanksgiving day game with the Lions in Detroit on November 25th, per the Chicago Tribune.
The full 17-game 2021 schedule will be released at 6:45 PM on Wednesday night.
