Why Is ‘What NFL Team Is Named After Something That Doesn’t Exist’ Trending On Internet? Find out

The NFL is the biggest sports league in the world, but did you know how the teams were named over “something that doesn’t exist.”

By Blesson Daniel

Published on Apr 24, 2024 | 06:01 PM IST | 1.4M

Ragnar the NFL team Minnesota Vikings Mascot [Credit-Getty]

“What NFL Team Is Named After Something That Doesn’t Exist” has been going quite viral on TikTok. NFL team owners do not always choose their own names. Almost half of the NFL's 32 clubs began their hunt for a name by polling the public in naming competitions. Other employed advisory committees or focus groups determine the ideal name.

The fans feel that Cleveland Brown is the only NFL team in history to name their team after something that doesn’t exist. A fan proved the theory. In a TikTok video, when asked “What NFL Team Is Named After Something That Doesn’t Exist” the fan showed a pen with a brown color cap on it saying, “The Browns, the color brown actually doesn’t exist, Google It!”.

But for those who don’t know, Cleveland Browns was created in 1946 and named after its first head coach, Paul Brown, who was already well-known in Ohio after leading Ohio State University to a national collegiate football title. The Browns were inaugural members of the AAFC, winning the league title in each of its four years of existence.

Normally if something like this is going viral means any team name might have been changed but since it last happened in 2022, no new information on any team changing their name has come online. It can be speculated that with NFL drafts coming close NFL fans just wanted something to hook themselves onto and they found it on Tik Tok.

Here are some of the NFL teams and how they came up with their name

New York Giants

When Tim Mara formed the NFL's equivalent in 1925, the New York Giants had already been a successful baseball club. He chose to capitalize on the name equity of the baseball club, which made sense given that they would play in the same venue.

Philadelphia Eagles

Bert Bell and Lud Wray were given the franchise rights to the financially troubled Frankford Yellow Jackets in 1933, and they moved the team to Philadelphia. They picked the moniker Eagles as a tribute to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal initiative, as an eagle appeared on the National Recovery Act's symbol.

Green Bay Packers

When the team first formed in 1919, it was known as both the Packers and the Indians. However, two days after originally using both names, the Green Bay Press-Gazette began referring to the team only as the Packers. Indians come from the Indian Packing Co., a meatpacking firm that had originally sponsored the squad.

According to the Packers, it's unclear who invented the term, but it was most likely one of two Press-Gazette staff members, either sports journalist Val Schneider or city editor George Whitney Calhoun, who co-founded the team alongside Curly Lambeau. When Acme Packing joined Indian Packing as a team sponsor in 1921, using the moniker Packers made even more sense.

Chicago Bears

The franchise, founded by club founder George Halas, was formerly known as the Staleys. When the agreement to preserve the Staleys' name expired in 1922, Halas chose to rename the team the Bears. Halas considered using the name Cubs but decided that because football players are bigger than baseball players, they should be named Bears.

Detroit Lions

The franchise relocated from Portsmouth, Ohio to Detroit in 1934 after being acquired by a consortium led by Motown radio mogul George A. Richards. As newcomers to town, they wanted to maintain the city's reputation with the professional baseball team, the Tigers, thus they chose the name Lions. Following their arrival, Detroit Zoo director John Millen presented the company with two lion cubs dubbed "Grid" and "Iron," who followed the team to every game.

Minnesota Vikings

When Minnesota was given an NFL franchise in 1960, various nicknames were proposed, including Chippewas, Miners, Voyageurs, and Vikings. Bert Rose, Minnesota's first general manager, suggested the Vikings moniker to the team's board of directors as a tribute to the state's strongly ingrained Scandinavian-American culture. The name was selected to signify "an aggressive person with the will to win and the Nordic tradition in the northern Midwest," according to the team's website.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Hugh Culverhouse, the then-owner, launched a fan poll in 1974 to choose a moniker for the expansion team, which began playing football in 1976. The name Buccaneers was chosen from over 400 entries as a tribute to the pirates that sailed Florida's Gulf Coast in the 17th century.

Seattle Seahawks

In 1975, supporters were solicited for recommendations on what Seattle's expansion team should be called when it began play the following season. According to the Seahawks' website, more than 20,000 entries resulted in over 1,700 unique recommendations. There were references to Pacific Northwest folklore (Bigfoots), weather (Rainbirds), nautical (Chowderheads, Sperm Whales), and aviation (747s) industries, as well as Seattle's most renowned landmark (Space Needlers). Some choices (Ding Dongs and Orangutans) have no local significance. The eventual victor, the Seahawks, was recommended by 153 individuals.

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