For the Love of Logos - The NFL - Part II: Favorites, Flops and The Forgotten

Written by Zeke Perez Jr.

​NFL team logos have gone through many changes over time. In part one of this NFL edition of For the Love of Logos, we saw how teams passed through overly realistic phases, silly and cartoonish phases, and robust and official phases. Each phase perfectly captured the era it was born in. Over the years, we’ve seen some truly classic looks. Here in part two, I’ll showcase some of those in my version of ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’. Here in The Favorites, the Flops, and the Forgotten, I’ll be looking at my favorite classic logos, those that were less great (to be polite), and some that are less well known. All logos you see are courtesy of the great sportslogos.net. Enjoy, and feel free to reach out in the comments or on Twitter @NerdsThatZeke to let me know what your favorite (or least favorite) NFL logos are!

The Favorites

• Denver Broncos, Classic ‘D’: The bucking stallion bursting through the letter D, snorting ferociously. This iconic logo remains a favorite of Broncos fans and can be spotted around Denver regularly. Fun fact: its creator received only a letter from the team, a shirt, hat, and two tickets (that went unused) for designing the logo that the team would use for nearly 30 years.

• New England Patriots, Pat the Patriot: Very rarely will you ever hear me utter anything positive about the Patriots. This is one of those times, though, so listen up and don’t get used to it. New England’s Pat the Patriot logo is an all-time great. A minuteman in full red-white-and-blue attire, ready to snap the football, the logo breathes nostalgia and looks great on a clean white helmet. Much better than the terrible new 'Flying Elvis' logo. (C’mon, I couldn’t stay completely positive.)

 

• Houston Oilers, oil rig: Perhaps it’s the logo’s simplicity or maybe it’s the beautiful light blue with the red outline, but Houston’s oil derrick logo has always caught my attention. It’s widely regarded as one of the league’s best of all time. Unfortunately, the look was scrapped when the franchise moved to Tennessee and adopted the Titans moniker and a new logo.

 

• Buffalo Bills, standing buffalo: The Bills only used the standing Buffalo between 1970 and 1973 before moving to the 'charging buffalo' look, but I’ve always preferred the old one. Buffalo has been bringing back the standing buffalo in throwback games over the past few years. I hope they keep that up! The red standing buffalo is another logo that looks amazing on a plain white helmet. 

The Flops

• Cleveland Browns, Brownie the Elf: Oh, poor Cleveland…no Super Bowl appearances, more quarterbacks over the past few decades than can be remembered, and just not much to work with in the logo department. The Browns were almost named the Cleveland Panthers, but were instead named after their first coach, Paul Brown. Since 1970, the Browns have gone without a primary logo, only using a picture of their (also bland) orange helmet. But from 1948 to 1969, the Browns used Brownie the Elf, chosen by the team owner out of submissions for a mascot logo. He was (somehow) beloved by Cleveland fans back then.

 

• Miami Dolphins, current dolphin: Alright, so the new Miami Dolphins logo (introduced in 2013) isn’t bad, per se. But it makes my flop list because of the logo that was scrapped to make room for it. The new logo is a more realistic dolphin swimming in front of a sunburst. The old (and much better) version was legendary: a leaping dolphin wearing a team-colored football helmet. Dolphin wearing a helmet > dolphin with no helmet.

 

• St. Louis Cardinals, running cardinal: While they were in St. Louis, the Cardinals created this monstrosity. This Godzilla-esque bird with its anthropomorphic arms and legs is clearly terrorizing the city and came very close to knocking over the Gateway Arch. There are realistic looking bird logos, cartoony looking bird logos, and then…there’s this one.

 

• Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Bucco Bruce: So, this Bucs logo isn’t necessarily a flop. People were and are still a fan and the Creamsicle orange remains a hit. But the pirate himself is something else. Nicknamed Bucco Bruce, this guy looks to be straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean 14 or some sort of pirate fan fiction. Why is he winking? He’s a far cry from the skull and crossbones flag Tampa uses now. 

The Forgotten

• San Francisco 49ers, prospector: The Niners have used their iconic SF oval logo since 1968, so not many folks know that they once had a full-on Yosemite Sam lookin’ prospector as a logo. Wearing his checkered pants and firing his six-shooters like a Looney Tune, he was the face of the franchise from 1946 through 1967.

 

• New York Jets, jet: What a novel idea! The New York Jets once used a jet in their logo. It was only used in their first year in 1963. Since then, New York has gone between a few different wordmarks, none of which featured a jet as prominently.

 

• New York Giants, giant: Another New York team not really making use of its namesake. The Giants used to use a logo featuring a giant towering out of a football stadium in various forms from 1945 through 1960. Since then, they have used “NY” or “GIANTS” wordmarks.

 

• Oakland Raiders, gold Raider: The Raiders are inseparable from their “Silver and Black” identity. The Black Hole in Oakland (or… soon to be Vegas) is a pit of those two colors alone. So not many folks realize that, at their inception, the Raiders were clad more like today’s Steelers. The Raiders donned a black and gold logo and uniforms from 1960 to 1962.

 

• Detroit Lions, striped logo: The Lions used this logo from 1961 to 1969. The Microsoft-Paint looking Lion sits on top of blue, white, and silver stripes. It almost looks like a vintage car emblem, which is fitting for the Motor City.