Football Fandom's Simple Shorthand
Pay Homage to the NFL Wordmark
Human beings are wired to seek out a social identity, to find belonging in a group. It’s in our DNA to connect through shared experiences.
For sports fans, the names stitched across training gear, game-day jerseys, and apparel are powerful symbols of buying into a cause that binds us to families, our friends, and our communities. A team is the extension of the self, and there’s no better way to showcase that than with one simple wordmark.
Before logos went big and bold, changing seemingly every season, this was the look. Clear, direct, undeniable. It says everything that needs to be said.
Built for function. Rooted in identity. A simple shorthand for unconditional loyalty that needed no extra flair. Often, this is the team assigned to us at birth, passed down through the generations. Being a fan is as essential to us as breathing air. This team is part of what fundamentally makes us who we are.
A Style Rooted in History
The wordmark style traces back to the early to mid-20th century, when teams first put their names front and center. As the game and the fandom evolved, wordmarks remained.
Logos and rosters might change with ever-greater frequency, but the wordmark is a core part of every franchise’s visual DNA. No matter the evolutionary changes of a team, its heartbeat stays the same.
The truest expression of who you root for and why. You might not even be able to articulate it yourself fully. You just know this is who you are, who you were always meant to be.
The Fandom Ingrained in All of Us
The psychological impact of being a sports fan has been studied for decades. Thousands of hours of deep research have been devoted to understanding the emotional and mental significance of fandom.
To the academic crowd, fandom is a paradox, a social phenomenon that might never entirely be understood. Seemingly everything about it exists in an unknowable space, a dimension of our psyche that maybe can’t be fully defined but is undeniably there. Passion can’t ever be fully measured. You only know it’s a feeling you can’t ignore, that you couldn’t possibly imagine feeling any other type of way.
But you already knew all that. You feel it every time you don the mark of your team. The wordmark is worn by fans who don’t need a mascot or a modernized look to show their allegiance.
Just the name, proud and unmissable.
Pay homage to the uniform of fandom. Then, now, and forever.
