This is well... interesting to say the least. Hopefully school goes well for you and you can be more active again!

Los Angeles Jets? A nice nod to LAX and the Burbank airport, right?
Buffalo Chargers? Maybe the current Bills logo with a lightning bolt instead of the red stripe?
Miami Seahawks? The old AAFC squad?
Denver 49ers could also be the Denver 14ers.

I had hoped to make some simple suggestions and leave a lot of what'd you'd done as is, but the nature of the carousel messed that up by making any suggestion require moving everything around to fit. So, I went through and made an identity carousel of my own by following your framework and using some of the same switches. Hopefully this doesn't come across as me stepping all over your work too much!

Houston Texans -> Dallas Texans
Dallas Cowboys -> Kansas City Cowboys
Kansas City Chiefs -> Green Bay Chiefs (a nod to the Native American history in the area)
Green Bay Packers -> Chicago Packers
Chicago Bears -> New England Bears (black bears can be found in Massachusetts and much of New England)
New England Patriots -> Philadelphia Patriots (Declaration of Independence, Founding Fathers)
Philadelphia Eagles -> Washington Eagles (patriotic)
Washington Football Team -> New York Football Team (I could totally see this being a great opportunity for some kind of NYFT logo, ala Yankees/Mets/NYC FC)
New York Jets -> Los Angeles Jets
Los Angeles Rams -> Las Vegas Rams (the Nevada state animal is the Desert Bighorn)
Las Vegas Raiders -> Pittsburgh Raiders
Pittsburgh Steelers -> Detroit Steelers
Detroit Lions -> New York Lions (for the lion statues in front of the New York Public Library)
New York Giants -> Tennessee Giants (for the music "giants" in Nashville)
Tennessee Titans -> San Francisco Titans (when the Golden Gate Bridge was first built, it was the tallest suspension bridge in the world -- also this would complement the MLB team nicely)
San Francisco 49ers -> Denver 49ers
Denver Broncos -> Los Angeles Broncos (wild horses and a nod to the city's Spanish heritage)
Los Angeles Chargers -> Carolina Chargers (for all the NASCAR race cars that charge across the finish line -- yeah, it's a bit of a stretch!)
Carolina Panthers -> Tampa Bay Panthers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers -> New Orleans Buccaneers
New Orleans Saints -> Minnesota Saints (name them the Minneapolis Saints and it's a nod to the twin cities)
Minnesota Vikings -> Buffalo Vikings (because Buffalo is cold)
Buffalo Bills -> Cleveland Bills
Cleveland Browns -> Baltimore Browns
Baltimore Ravens -> Seattle Ravens (ravens are more associated with Vancouver, but are found throughout the Pacific Northwest)
Seattle Seahawks -> Miami Seahawks
Miami Dolphins -> Jacksonville Dolphins
Jacksonville Jaguars -> Arizona Jaguars (jaguars used to roam parts of the Southwest, but there's only been one sighting in Arizona in the last decade)
Arizona Cardinals -> Cincinnati Cardinals (Ohio state bird and some lovely alliteration, also the red would complement the MLB team well)
Cincinnati Bengals -> Atlanta Bengals (Tiger Mountain in Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains? Fictional fan vote?)
Atlanta Falcons -> Indianapolis Falcons (there are Peregrine falcons in the state)
Indianapolis Colts -> Houston Colts


The Bengals, Falcons, and Jaguars were hard to find spots for, and it was tough to match something with Indianapolis, Charlotte, and Tennessee. I really dislike the 49ers name after this as well, because there were so many better names for Denver (Rams, Bills, Cowboys, Chiefs) that got blocked by there being no other place for the 49ers name. I also agree that the Cleveland situation is not too great. There are too many generic names in the NFL!

PS. Let me know if you'd have any interest in having a collaborator for this. I was a big fan of your "Open Branding Football" project on CCSLC and would love to help!

Last edited by Megildur (2/08/2021 1:00 am)

I’m a fan of a lot of those ideas actually! I think you handled my Eagles predicament much better, I thought about trying to fit them into Washington or New York but couldn’t get it to work quite how I liked and ended up putting it off till the end. I also like the Cincinnati Cardinals.

However there are some issues. I like the names for Arizona, Las Vegas and Indianapolis, though a problem arises since those are all older franchises that have relocated from former cities. The Arizona Jaguars might be the biggest offense to this. I love the idea of tying the Jaguars of the southwest into a team but I don’t think Arizona is the way to go here, since that would mean they were at one point the Chicago Jaguars back in the early 1900’s, which I think is a bit unrealistic. The same problem arises with both Las Vegas and Indy. Las Vegas might still work as the Oakland Rams aren’t too bad, but you end up with the Los Angeles Rams from 82-94. Having them as the LA Rams anyway kind of defeats the point no?
Indy isn’t as much of a problem, I just don’t see a Baltimore franchise from the 50’s choosing the name Falcons. (The Baltimore Colts relocated to Indy in the 80’s)

I’d love to talk over some collab ideas. I’ve seen your work over on the motherboard and I’m a fan. Maybe we could draft up a better carousel concept to integrate both of our ideas into one. I’ve sent you a pm!

Whats the idea behind some of these? I'm trying to put some reason behind some of the more arbitrary seeming ones, like the Las Vegas Bears. Is the idea there that the original Oakland Bears were named after the bear on the California flag, because if so that's not a bad idea. Are the Arizona Chiefs named after native tribes like the Navajo and Hopi? I'm not sure that idea fits for a franchise that originated in Chicago and then St. Louis. A few others like Denver Bills, New York Bengals, Green Bay Vikings, LA Steelers and others toward the bottom of the list are also head scratchers and seem just random. 


I actually went back late last night and revamped my list with some of the ideas Megildur presented and I think it's a bit better.  I think I may have solved the Browns issue and found a better home for names like the Eagles and Giants, which I wasn't too happy with before.
Here's the updated list. The bolded names are the changed ones. Underlines ones are ones I took from your list Megildur.

Dallas Texans
Kansas City Cowboys
Las Vegas Chiefs
Pittsburgh Raiders
Detroit Steelers
Philadelphia Lions
New England Eagles
Washington Patriots
New York Football Team
Chicago Giants
Green Bay Bears
Cincinnati Packers
Atlanta Bengals
Baltimore Falcons
Tennessee Ravens
New York Titans
Los Angeles Jets
San Francisco Rams
Denver 49ers
Los Angeles Broncos
Tampa Bay Chargers
New Orleans Buccaneers
Minnesota Saints
Seattle Vikings
Miami Seahawks
Jacksonville Dolphins
Carolina Jaguars
Buffalo Panthers
Cleveland Bills
Arizona Browns
Indianapolis Cardinals
Houston Colts