How every NFL team got its name
I’m going to start this journey with a confession that has nothing to do with football. I did not know that Edgar Allan Poe was American. To all of my teachers through my 18 years of education: I’m sorry.
Details of how or why I did not know this information aren’t important. His name just has big Sir Arthur Conan Doyle energy so I just assumed he was English, and there was never a point in my life where it mattered enough that I’d bother to confirm that misinformation.
Anyway, I learned this while watching the movie The Pale Blue Eye on Netflix. It’s a somewhat slow-paced, historical fiction mystery thriller starring Batman Christian Bale and Dudley Dursley Harry Melling. The latter plays a young Edgar Allan Poe during his time at West Point. It was just an okay movie, FYI.
Poe’s inclusion in the film led me to do a quick Wikipedia search where I learned he was born in Boston and died in Baltimore. (Here’s where we get to the football bit of the story).
I tweeted my discovery, acknowledging in the process that I was perhaps the last person on Earth to learn this information. Among the most popular responses on Twitter was the disbelief that I’d never tied the Baltimore Ravens being named the Ravens because of the famous poem by Poe.
First of all, he could’ve been British and immigrated to Baltimore. Second, and most importantly, I had literally never given it a second of thought. Ravens is a cool name. The Orioles were already in Baltimore. I probably would’ve figured they just went with another bird to keep the theme had I ever even given it a millisecond of my brain space.
Alas, this is ultimately my fault for having such a significant gap in my knowledge of America’s most famous poets. Shoutout to Geoffrey Chaucer, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost.
Instead of lashing out at the jerks lames people who clowned me for not connecting the Ravens to Poe being apparently the most famous Baltimoreon of all-time, I decided to do some preventative research and dove into why each NFL team has its name (fingers crossed Bill Seahawk isn’t a famous poet from the Pacific Northwest!)
Arizona Cardinals
This is why assuming how an NFL team got its name is ridiculous. The Cardinals got their name thanks to the color of some faded jerseys the franchise’s founder bought in the early 1900s. They were cardinal red, thus the Cardinals.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons got their name the way I thought the Ravens did. Rankin M. Smith bought the franchise and held a contest to name the team. The Falcons won because it sounded cool and because a teacher from Georgia eloquently described why the Falcon would make a good mascot. Neat!
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Baltimore Ravens
It turns out the name ‘Ravens’ WAS picked via fan vote! Stick it, nerds!
Were they named after a famous American poet?
Yes.
Buffalo Bills
This is another one that came via fan submission, and another one named after a famous American, Buffalo Bill. The Bills website says the name was submitted by a fan named James F. Dyson in a contest before Ralph C. Wilson bought the club. Wilson kept the name when he acquired the team in 1959.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Carolina Panthers
The NFL franchise in Carolina debuted in 1995, and they became the Panthers because the owner’s son liked the name. Naming the team would be a top 1 reason to own an expansion franchise.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Chicago Bears
They’re called the Bears because they first played at Wrigley Field after George Halas moved the team to Chicago. Halas more or less called his team the Bears as a dig on Chicago’s baseball team, the Cubs, who also play(ed) at Wrigley Field.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Cincinnati Bengals
This was more or less borne from a lack of creativity from Paul Brown, who headed the group that was awarded a professional franchise in Cincinnati. There were pro football teams in the early-to-mid 20th century in Cincinnati named the Bengals, so Brown just stuck with that. This is why the Bengals are the way they are.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Cleveland Browns
More fan contest drama! It’s generally accepted the name ‘Browns’ was the most popular submission in the fan contest in honor of its first head coach, Paul Brown. The coach tried to reject the name to no avail.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No, although it’s not out of the question that Brown wrote poetry.
Dallas Cowboys
We have more baseball influence on an NFL team name. The Dallas football team was going to change its name to the Rangers since a baseball team in the area named the Rangers was getting ready to fold. They didn’t fold right away though, leading the football team ownership to pivot to Cowboys.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Denver Broncos
The Broncos were named via fan contest. Boring.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Detroit Lions
There’s a layer of tragedy in why the Lions got their name. George A. Richards bought the team in 1934 and moved them from Portsmouth to Detroit. He picked Lions as the name because, a team spokesperson said according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, “The lion is monarch of the jungle, and we hope to be the monarch of the league.”
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Green Bay Packers
It’s not super wild that the Packers originally got their name thanks to a pair of sponsors with “packing company” in the name. It is wild that they had so much success with the name that they just kept it.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Houston Texans
The fan contest thing is boring, but the Texans added an additional layer. They went with a focus group.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Indianapolis Colts
The Baltimore Colts were named via a fan contest. When the team ran away from Baltimore and moved to Indianapolis they kept the name.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No, because apparently Edgar Allan Poe wasn’t important enough to the Baltimoreons who originally helped name the franchise in the 1940s.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Here’s a good way to make a fan contest fun. The Jags had their name in 1991 thanks to a contest according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They did not debut as an NFL team until four years later. Every city in America should hold a contest now to name an NFL team just in case they need it eventually.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Kansas City Chiefs
Fan contest. Boo.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Las Vegas Raiders
The most perfectly Raiders thing is that nobody knows exactly how they got their name. 10/10. No notes.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
Maybe.
Los Angeles Chargers
You know the popular fan participation thing at sporting events where there’s a horn riff and then everyone yells “charge!” in unison? Yeah, that’s how this happened.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Los Angeles Rams
They were named after the Fordham University mascot, which is a Ram.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No, but Vin Scully went to Fordham and that’s close.
Miami Dolphins
Another fan contest here. Thankfully the fans landed on ‘Dolphins’ because it was integral in the plot of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Minnesota Vikings
The first Vikings general manager named the team the Vikings because of the amount of people in Minnesota with Scandinavian roots. If we were ranking these it would be second behind the Raiders.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
New England Patriots
This is a nod to the United States Revolution.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
New Orleans Saints
A plot twist on the fan contest angle! The Saints were named via fan contest, but according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the team probably would’ve been given the name without the contest for two reasons. First, the city was awarded a franchise on All Saints Day. Second, the famous song ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ jibed with the city’s jazz culture. So, good work by the people of New Orleans on picking the name they would’ve gotten stuck with anyway!
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
New York Giants
They stole their name from the New York Giants baseball team. At least George Halas had the decency to spin off the local baseball team name. Although the alternative to Giants would probably not have been that good of a football team name.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
New York Jets
They used to be the New York Titans, but then Sonny Werblin bought the club in 1963 and changed the name to Jets to “reflect the modern approach of his team and the star-studded performances he hoped his team would produce,” per the Hall of Fame. It worked for one (1) season, but now the Jets are still trying to get off the ground.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Philadelphia Eagles
If you love the Eagles nickname, you can thank the 32nd president of these United States of America, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. While he didn’t name the team directly (a fan contest where the President wins would be super funny), the eagle logo applied to his New Deal that helped dig the United States out of the Great Depression was the impetus for Philadelphia’s choice in mascot in the early 1930s.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No, but don’t let that sell short the impact of FDR’s famous Fireside Chats.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Art Rooney gets it. The pro football team in Pittsburgh originally swiped the local baseball team’s name and went by the Pirates. Then Rooney stepped in and paid homage to the city’s prominent place in the United States steel industry.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
San Francisco 49ers
The California Gold Rush, ever heard of it? Anyway, it actually started in 1848 when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in Northern California. Gold seekers were nicknamed ’49ers’ for when the stampede of immigrants into the area peaked.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Seattle Seahawks
Fan contest.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Buccaneers skipped the whole fan rigamarole and had an internal advisory board review a few hundred possibilities. I would kill to know all of the names they rejected.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Tennessee Titans
The Titans moved to Tennessee from Houston where they were the Oilers. After a couple of seasons as the Tennessee Oilers, they chose a new name via some fan input and an advisory board.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No.
Washington Commanders
Haha. Lol.
Were they named after a famous American poet?
No. They certainly were not.
