The Worst NFL Logos of All Time

When you think “iconic NFL logos,” there are a few that pop into just about everyone’s mind: the Cowboys, the Steelers, the 49ers, the Raiders, just to name a few. In other words, pretty much any team that was good back in the day. These logos aren’t iconic just because they look “cool,” but because they have a history attached to them: Legends wore them, Super Bowls were won in them, and they have withstood the test of time.

And then there are the rest.

Some logos are just, to put it kindly, not iconic. The NFL has provided some of the worst looks of all time in addition to the best. For every Cowboys star, there’s a Browns whatever-that-is. For every Raiders face, there’s the L.A. Chargers trying to rip off the Dodgers. And for every Packers “G,” there’s a…you can fill in the blank with a bad logo of your choice.

Even as history has looked kindly upon some logos that were initially considered ugly (the cartoon Raptors jerseys used to get panned routinely), there are some that don’t even get the rose-colored nostalgia bump. In fact, some of them look even worse now than they did back then.

A lot of the logos on this list aren’t the team’s formal primary look, but rather an alternate logo. Unlike the NBA or NHL, NFL alternates don’t always see the light of day. So teams sometimes take liberties (often times way too many liberties) to try to give an orthodox look some aesthetic pop. A good many of these efforts fall flat.

Another common entry on here are cartoony logos from the ’60s. Some teams were able to pull them off (like the old Baltimore Colts logo), but most were not. And you’ll see a lot of those on here today.

So with all that said, here are the 33 worst NFL logos of all time.

Years Active: 1960-70

Not only is this logo sloppily drawn, but look at the disparity in expressions between the cowboy and the horse. It looks like the horse is being tortured. This combination looks like a poor man’s Woody & Bullseye — and I’m talking a very poor man’s version.

See logo here.

Years Active: 1967-84

The cartoon in this logo adds literally nothing. He’s not playing football, is not intimidating, and certainly does not look like a saint. He’s just kind of standing around awkwardly, staring into space.

See logo here

Years Active: 1970-80

This is just the Bengals’ helmet. What’s the point of naming your team the Bengals if your logo isn’t going to emblemize or allude to a Bengal at all?

See logo here

Years Active: 2012-present

It looks like this panther is yawning. Guess even logos can get tired of Cam Newton being an average quarterback, too.

See logo here

Years Active: 2006-present

This logo looks like it was made for a third-rate supermarket chain.

See logo here

Years Active: 1961-68

Has anyone ever worn a hard hat with cowboy boots? I’m from New York, so please don’t ridicule me if the answer is yes.

That notwithstanding, the Oilers’ classic “oil rig” logo was far superior to this monstrosity.

See logo here

Years Active: 1960-62, 1963-69

When the Dallas Texans relocated to Kansas City in 1963, the newly-minted Chiefs needed a new logo. They couldn't keep the old Texans logo, obviously. So what they basically did was draw over the old logo.

They swapped out the Texas backdrop with Missouri, and just threw a headdress on the Texan. The problem here isn’t the logos per se (although you could probably never get away with either of these today — the gun in the first or the Native American in the second). It’s just the laziness that went into creating the new Chiefs logo.

See logo here

Years Active: 1999-Present You’d expect the Titans’ logo to be a picture of an actual titan. It doesn’t even really have anything to do with titans at all.

See logo here

Years Active: 1961-69

Was this lion drawn with a ballpoint blue pen? Because it kind of looks like it was.

See logo here

Years Active: 1956-69

These letters are so elongated that you can hardly tell they’re a “G” and a “B.” The Packers unveiled this logo in 1956, but it looks like it could have been made in 1856.

See logo here

Years Active: 2013-Present

This logo looks like a tramp stamp. Whereas the original Dolphins logo brought back memories of Don Shula, Bob Griese, Mercury Morris and Dan Marino, this logo brings back fond memories of Joe Philbin, Matt Moore, Dion Jordan and Jay Cutler. The team’s logo progression from the iconic original to the current tramp stamp does a rather fitting job of symbolizing the direction the franchise has gone since Marinio’s retirement.

See logo here

Years Active: 1956-60

Get it? Because they’re the Giants. And the logo is a Giant, playing at Yankee Stadium, which is where the Giants played at the time.

This logo is pretty plain. It’s a cool concept, but the team’s previous logo was a much better rendition of a cartoon Giant than this one.

See logo here

Years Active: 1976-1996

Not only is this an aesthetically disgusting logo, but Tampa Bay was awful when it was in use. In 20 seasons in cream-colored orange, the Bucs made the playoffs just three times. Once they changed to a more palatable red in 1997, they made the playoffs in seven of the next 11 seasons — and won a Super Bowl in 2002. Clearly that’s attributable to dumping this logo and color scheme.

See logo here

Years Active: 1940-1945

It looks like this bear is tiptoeing across the gridiron. Which would probably make it one of the Bears’ best offensive players today.

See logo here

Years Active: 1989-2004 This isn’t even a Cardinals logo. It’s just the Arizona flag. Which the Cardinals used as an alternate logo for 15 years, Nothing against the Arizona flag, but using it as your team logo? For the Cardinals? That’s kinda, like, plagiarism.

See logo here

Years Active: 2017-Present

This logo provides a frontal view of what has essentially been Seattle’s logo for its entire existence. That logo, from the side, is fine. But from the full-frontal angle, the Seahawk looks like a character from a bad DreamWorks movie. The Seahawks unveiled this alternate logo this year. It was panned on Twitter upon its release, and it’s not hard to see why. Some users pointed out that it bares a striking resemblance to Mr. Burns from “The Simpsons,” which it kind of does.

Excellent.

See logo here

Years Active: 1962-69

The Bills’ current logo is clearly far better than this one. But in the 1962 logo’s defense, Buffalo never lost a Super Bowl while wearing it.

See logo here

Years Active: 1997-present

Horses aren’t supposed to stand like that. The Broncos rarely make much use of this logo, and it’s not hard to see why.

See logo here

Years Active: 1960-62 The Jets were the New York Titans for their first three seasons of play. Their old uniforms and logos were pretty ugly, but they always tended to play well when they were bought back as throwbacks: The Jets were 5-1 from 2007-11 when donning the Titans jerseys.

See logo here

Years Active: 1997

After moving to Tennessee in 1997, the Oilers kept their original name for two years before changing to the Titans in 1999. This seems like a curious choice for a team playing in Tennessee. Namely, because there’s no oil in Tennessee.

See logo here

Years Active: 1968-69

If Tony the Tiger lost his job at Kellogg’s and started taking up meth, he’d probably look like this.

See logo here

Years Active: 2002-2005 I’ve (sadly) been a diehard Jets fan my whole life, and didn’t even realize this guy existed before writing this piece. I liked it better that way.

Years Active: 1951-55

You could probably design a cooler logo with WordArt today. Most of these bad logos at least look like professionally-made logos. This one doesn’t even look professionally made.

See logo here

Years Active: 1970-82

All the Rams’ old logo needs is a pentagram or some blood and it could be a logo for some Satanic metal band. Put lightly, it doesn’t look like a football logo. The Rams had the coolest helmets in football at this time (and maybe the coolest helmets in NFL history) but this logo is just bizarre. Most of those logos at the time were cartoon-ish and innocent (and some ridiculously so), but this one looks a little too real.

See logo here

Years Active: 1960-61

The original Broncos’ color scheme, logo and jerseys are some of the worst looks the NFL has seen outside of Cleveland. Changing to orange & blue was perhaps the franchise’s smartest move outside of drafting John Elway.

Plus, look at the facial expression on the horse in this logo. It looks dead.

See logo here

Years Active: 1965

The Browns never actually wore this logo (nor have they ever worn a logo on their helmet), but this 1965 gem has become an object of interest by some Browns fans. It was once believed that Cleveland wore these logos once — in a preseason game — and the players showed their displeasure with the helmet logos by ripping them off. There’s actually no evidence to suggest this is true.

In actuality, it appears as though the team’s helmets were depicted in the “CB” logo in a few promotional materials, and that was the extent of the logo. The Cleveland Scene has a very interesting piece on the logo, which is worth a read if you’re one of the few remaining Browns fans. It’s not hard to see why this logo didn’t go anywhere — I mean, just look at it. But it’s far from the worst logo the “Mistake on the Lake” has ever cooked up, as you’ll see shortly.

See logo here

Years Active: 1960

A hat? Really? Your entire logo is going to be a freaking hat?

This was the logo the Patriots used when they first entered the NFL. It lasted for just one season, however, before switching to the more familiar (and complete) “Pat Patriot” logo the following season.

Come on, you can’t have your logo be an article of clothing.

See logo here

Years Active: 2015- A major part of what makes the Browns so depressing is their look. When you play like crap, dress in crap colors, and are named after crap colors, that’s not a good combination. And that doesn’t even include the fact that they play in Cleveland.

The Browns are named after legendary head coach Paul Brown, who coached the team in its first 17 years of play. That’s a nice gesture, but it’s kind of hard to have a nice color scheme when your team is named after the least appealing color in the Crayola box.

See logo here

Years Active: 1946-1961

The 49ers are supposed to represent the Gold Rush, not some angry drunk guy shooting off pistols. I’m just gonna take a shot in the dark and say this guy never found any gold.

See logo here

Years Active: 2015-

This logo makes some sense, given that Browns fans have the “Dawg Pound” at FirstEnergy Stadium. But this is the most pathetic-looking cartoon dog since Scrappy Doo.

See logo here

Years Active: 1959-69

What does an elf have to do with the Browns? If you’re gonna go all in with the Paul Brown homage, he might as well be your logo. Seriously. Brownie the Elf? This thing looks like he couldn’t cut it at Santa’s workshop.

See logo here

Years Active: 1991

If you’ve never seen this logo before, that’s probably because it never actually hit the field.

The Niners announced this would be their new primary logo at a 1991 press conference, ditching the interlocking “SF” they had used since 1962. And fans were not happy.

San Fran fans revolted against this logo, berating the team’s offices with hundreds of angry calls, and many in the local media panned the team’s new look as well. And the backlash campaign worked: The team scrapped plans for the new logo just six days after unveiling it, and have kept some variation of the interlocking “SF” ever since.

It looked as though the Niners would never have competition in the shortest-tenured logo department. But last year, a fellow West Coast team shattered that record in flying colors:

See logo here

Years Active: 2017

Remember when this thing blew up on Twitter?

When the Chargers formally moved to L.A., they unveiled this new logo on social media. And by “new logo,” they basically meant the Dodgers’ current logo, but with a lightning bolt. It’s impossible to not see the resemblance — or the fact that it’s a garbage logo altogether.

The logo received universally negative reviews on social media, and the backlash prompted the Chargers to remove this logo after just two days. Not the kind of buzz you want to be making upon relocating your team. The Chargers were never really a fit for L.A., and this logo pretty much solidified that from the get-go.

See logo here