Jennifer Bubel

How The NFL Teams Got Their Names

The NFC Teams

Called the Steers for a short time, they switched to the Rangers, but the baseball team had the same name, so the owners changed it to the Cowboys. 

NFC East

Dallas Cowboys

Common back when the NFL was starting out was to take the city's baseball team name and use it for the NFL team - thus, we have the NY Giants.

NFC East

New York Giants

Franklin D. Roosevelt had just introduced the New Deal in 1933, which had a symbol of an eagle. The NFL team in Philadelphia chose to  honor that. 

NFC East

Philadelphia Eagles

The Boston Braves became the Redskins from 1934-2020, when they ditched the racial slur for the generic Washington Football Team. On 2/2/22 they became the Commanders.

NFC East

Washington Commanders

They were the Decatur/Chicago Staleys until 1922 when the founder named them after the Cubs MLB team but as the players were bigger, he called them the Bears.

NFC North

Chicago Bears

They were the Portsmouth Spartans from 1930-33, when the team moved to Detroit. To keep the cat theme with the MLB Tigers, they chose to be Lions.

NFC North

Detroit Lions

The Packers have had their name since their founding in 1919, when they were sponsored by the Indian Packing Company, later merging with Acme Packing, 

NFC North

Green Bay Packers

Vikings was chosen in 1960 as a tribute to the state's Scandinavian heritage and Nordic traditions. Chippewas, Miners, and Voyageurs were other options.

NFC North

Minnesota Vikings

They've been Falcons since their inception. It was the result of a fan contest, in which a teacher said the falcon is "proud and dignified with great courage and fight.”

NFC South

Atlanta Falcons

Owner Jerry Richardson wanted the dominant team color to be black, so he called them the Panthers, a "powerful, sleek, and strong" animal.

NFC South

Carolina Panthers

The franchise was awarded on All Saints Day, 1966, New Orleans is the city of jazz, and “When the Saints Go Marching In" was recorded in NO by Louis Armstrong.

NFC South

New Orleans Saints

A fan contest decided this one in 1974 when Tampa was awarded a franchise. Buccaneers is an homage to the pirates who explored the Gulf Coast of Florida.

NFC South

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

They used University of Chicago jerseys, which were a faded "cardinal red", so they became the Chicago, then St. Louis, then Phoenix, then Arizona Cardinals.

NFC West

Arizona Cardinals

The name Rams came from the Fordham University Rams. First in Cleveland, the Rams moved to LA in 1946, then St. Louis, and back to be the LA Rams in 2016.

NFC West

Los Angeles Rams

The team was born in 1946 and co-owner Allen E. Sorrell chose the name 49ers to honor the "voyagers who rushed West for gold"

NFC West

San Francisco 49ers

Choices in the 1976 fan contest: Bigfoots, Rainbirds, Chowderheads, Sperm Whales, 747's, Space Needlers, Ding Dongs, Orangutans, and Seahawks. Not a difficult choice.

NFC West

Seattle Seahawks

How The NFL Teams Got Their Names

The AFC Teams

Follow all the latest NFL news on AS USA