50 Fun Facts About NFL Logo

Which NFL team's logo is a fleur-de-lis?

The symbol belongs to the city of New Orleans and to French royalty; the team has worn it on gold helmets since its 1967 debut.

A blue horseshoe on each side of a white helmet identifies which team?

The horseshoes first appeared as a pair on the back of the helmet in 1954 and only moved to the sides in 1957.

A single white horn, outlined in gold, on each side of a purple helmet belongs to which team?

The horn was slightly redrawn in 2006, the team's first significant uniform change in 46 years.

Which team has used an arc-shaped lightning bolt as its logo since 1960?

During the AFL years the club also used a shield logo showing a horse's head, which fuels the debate over whether a 'Charger' is a bolt or a war horse.

Which is the only NFL team that puts its logo on just one side of the helmet?

Equipment manager Jack Hart applied it to the right side only in 1962 as a test of how it looked on the gold helmets, and fans liked it so much it stayed.

What steelmaking ingredient does the yellow shape in the Steelers' logo represent?

The original slogan behind the shapes was 'Steel lightens your work, brightens your leisure, and widens your world'; the ingredient meanings came later.

The Steelers' logo is based on the 'Steelmark', an industry emblem originally designed by which company?

Oddly, it was Cleveland-based Republic Steel that suggested the Pittsburgh team adopt the industry's mark, which is now owned by the American Iron and Steel Institute.

The Steelmark reads only 'Steel'. In what year was the team given permission to add 'ers' to it?

The same year the team switched from gold to black helmets to make the logo stand out more.

Which is the only NFL team with no logo on its helmet?

The plain orange helmet is itself the team's official logo; player numbers were painted on it from 1957 to 1960.

The Browns' darker official color is formally known by what name?

The helmet is burnt orange with a top stripe of that shade divided by white.

The Packers' oval 'G' was drawn in 1961 by an art student from which school?

Vince Lombardi asked equipment manager Gerald 'Dad' Braisher for a logo, and Braisher handed the job to his assistant John Gordon; the 'G' is the only logo ever to appear on a Packers helmet.

In what year did the Cowboys' originally solid blue star gain its white line and blue border?

The star represents Texas as the Lone Star State, and the design has been essentially unchanged since a slightly bolder outline arrived in 1967.

What is embossed on the blue strip of Dymo tape on the back of every Cowboys helmet?

It sits on the white portion of the blue-white-blue centre stripe, on a helmet shell officially colored 'Metallic Silver Blue'.

When the Bengals unveiled their tiger-striped orange helmets, Sports Illustrated likened them to what?

Paul Brown had rejected a similar striped design when the team was founded; the stripes finally arrived in 1981.

From 1968 to 1980, what appeared on the sides of Cincinnati's orange helmets?

Paul Brown had taken his equipment with him from his previous team, so the early Bengals uniforms were near copies of that club's with black swapped for brown.

The Patriots' 'Flying Elvis' logo replaced Pat Patriot in what year?

It got its nickname because many thought the minuteman's grey profile resembled a young Elvis Presley.

In 1979 the Patriots let fans at a game vote on a new logo. How was the crowd's verdict measured?

The fans roared for Pat, and the new design was shelved for another 14 years.

What was the Patriots' very first helmet logo, used only in the 1960 season?

Boston Globe artist Phil Bissell drew the ball-snapping minuteman that replaced it the following year.

The Buccaneers' original pirate logo winked instead of wearing an eyepatch, to avoid copying which team?

The winking swashbuckler was quickly nicknamed 'Bucco Bruce' and became a symbol of the club's early futility.

Who designed the Buccaneers' original winking pirate logo?

A Tampa Tribune cartoonist and member of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, he wanted a gallant, rakish pirate rather than a 'hairy-legged slob'.

The nickname 'Bucco Bruce' was coined in a February 1976 column by a sportswriter for which newspaper?

The name was meant as a put-down of the pirate's unintimidating, 'cavalier' look, and it stuck for two decades.

The Buccaneers' original orange uniforms earned what dessert-inspired nickname?

The team wore white for all 14 regular-season games in 1976, so the orange jerseys only appeared in preseason that first year.

Since 1997 the Buccaneers' primary colors have been red and which metallic shade?

Chris Berman promptly dubbed them 'the pirates in pewter pants', a nod to Gilbert and Sullivan.

Which team was the first in the NFL to put a logo on its helmets, back in 1948?

No other team put a logo on its helmet until 1954.

Which Rams halfback, a commercial artist in the off-season, hand-painted the team's first helmet horns?

He painted them yellow-gold on navy leather helmets; from 1949 the Riddell company baked the design into plastic shells at its factory.

In the Rams' 2020 rebrand, the team's yellow shade was officially named what?

The blue became 'Rams Royal', and the new 'LA' logo with a horn spiralling out of the A was very poorly received by fans.

The horse-head profile the Broncos adopted in 1997 was inspired by which of the team's live mascots?

Nike's art director described the result as 'a powerful horse with a fiery eye and mane'.

From 1968 to 1996 the Broncos' logo showed a bucking horse bursting out of which letter?

That 'Orange Crush' era also brought the royal blue helmets the team wore until the 1997 redesign.

The Jaguars' first proposed logo, a gold leaping cat, was scrapped after objections from which automaker?

As Jaguar's parent at the time, Ford settled amicably: Jaguar became the official car of the team, and the team redesigned its look.

Wayne Weaver joked that the teal tongue in the Jaguars' logo came from 'feeding' which fellow expansion team to them?

Weaver credited the tongue itself to his wife; teal candies were handed out at the first preseason game so fans' tongues would match.

The Panthers' cat-head logo was shaped to mimic the outline of what?

The 2012 tweak, the first in team history, sharpened the brow and fangs for a more three-dimensional look.

When the NFL shield was redesigned in 2008, its stars were cut from 25 to how many?

One for each division; the league's brand director admitted designers 'could find no reason for 25 stars'.

In the 2008 shield redesign, the football at the centre was reshaped to resemble the ball on top of what?

The new shield, taller and thinner with darker colors, debuted at the April 2008 draft.

Super Bowl 50 dropped Roman numerals partly because designers struggled with which letter?

The NFL's creative director also worried the letter could be read as the 'loser' hand gesture; 73 mockups were drawn before gold '50' numerals won.

Which Super Bowl was the first branded with Roman numerals, applied retroactively to earlier ones?

The standardized silver Lombardi Trophy logo template did not arrive until Super Bowl XLV in 2011.

Lamar Hunt's interlocking 'KC' arrowhead was inspired by the helmet logo of which team?

Hunt sketched the design on a napkin; the Chiefs' equipment staff later admitted the 'C' is sometimes drawn open and sometimes closed for no particular reason.

The Vikings' original helmet logo and uniforms were designed by a cartoonist for which newspaper?

Karl Hubenthal knew Bert Rose and Norm Van Brocklin from their Rams days, and he also drew the original Norseman.

In what year did the Eagles swap kelly green for the darker 'midnight green'?

Silver was practically abandoned at the same time, and the helmet wings turned mostly white; kelly green returned as an alternate in 2023.

The Eagles' name and original emblem were inspired by the Blue Eagle symbol of which New Deal agency?

Founders Bert Bell and Lud Wray chose it in 1933 after taking over the assets of the bankrupt Frankford Yellow Jackets.

The Ravens' first helmet logo was ruled to infringe on a design faxed in by an amateur artist who worked as what?

Frederick Bouchat won the copyright verdict but was awarded no money; a fan poll then chose the raven's-head profile used since 1999.

In 1984 the Bills switched their helmet from white to red mainly to help which player pick out teammates?

The quarterback said everyone they played at the time wore white helmets, so his new coach wanted more contrast to spot receivers downfield.

The Bills' charging-buffalo logo was created in 1974 by Stevens Wright, a designer from what industry?

It replaced a standing red bison that had been on the helmet since 1962.

The Seahawks' original logo was based on a mask made by which Indigenous people?

The mask, held at Seattle's Burke Museum, actually depicts an eagle or thunderbird rather than the osprey a 'seahawk' technically is.

In the Texans' bull-head logo, what forms the eye?

Its five points stand for pride, courage, strength, tradition and independence, and the head is split to echo the Texas flag.

The stars in the Titans' logo represent what?

The 'T' trails flames like a comet; the same three stars appear on the state flag.

The Houston Oilers' oil-derrick logo originally carried what nickname?

The name was dropped before the 1974 season, though the derrick itself survived until the 1999 renaming.

The Chargers' 2017 'LA' logo was scrapped within two days after being compared to which team's logo?

The team first tried recoloring it to calm the backlash, then abandoned it altogether.

The Lions' official shade of blue is named after which city?

The color is said to be inspired by the waves off Hawaii; the Presnells, a player and his wife, picked blue and silver for owner George Richards in 1934.

The Falcons' 1966 colors paired the Bulldogs' red and black with which school's white and gold?

Red and black came from the Bulldogs, white and gold from the Yellow Jackets; the gold was dropped after a few seasons but the white remains.

Who changed the Raiders' colors to silver and black and first put a logo on the helmet in 1963?

The original 1960-62 Raiders wore black and gold with no helmet logo, and even printed players' full names on their backs.