The NFL franchises have the most varied names. Whether they have been chosen by fans or by owners, whether they are intimidating animals, tributes to people, industries, or groups, each team has a story behind it.
Below, we will share a summary of the stories behind some top NFL teams (you’ve probably staked on their NFL odds), so sit and enjoy.
Arizona Cardinal
They are the oldest football team in the United States since they were born in 1898 as Morgan Athletic Club. The name Cardinals arrived in 1920 and was chosen because they wore maroon jerseys whose discolouration resulted in the so-called cardinal red. The franchise adopted the northern cardinal as its emblem in the 1940s.
Atlanta Falcons
It is very common for team names in North American leagues to win popular tournaments. Before the Georgians kicked off in 1966, there were about five hundred proposals to name the franchise, including Peaches or Confederates. However, the winning option was Falcons because they are “lethal, proud, dignified birds that never let go of their prey.”
Baltimore Ravens
Art Modell moved the Browns from Cleveland to Baltimore in 1996. However, there was an agreement between Modell, the NFL, and the city of Cleveland that Brown’s story would remain in Ohio pending their resurrection in 1999. Therefore, Modell’s is considered an expansion team and had to receive a new name. This was Ravens (Ravens) in homage to the famous poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, who died in Baltimore in 1849.
Buffalo Bills
The current Buffalo Bills were born in the American Football League (AFL) in 1960. Their name was taken as a sign of respect for the disappeared Buffalo Bisons/Bills of the also extinct AAFC. This team adopted that last denomination in homage to the famous explorer and bison hunter Buffalo Bill. A very well-drawn name.
Carolina Panthers
Jerry Richardson chose Panthers as the name for his team. This is because that feline brought together what, for him, should be the characteristics of an NFL team: power, elegance, and strength. It should also be noted that the franchise’s place name makes no distinction between the two Carolinas, even though the Panthers play in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Chicago Bears
In 1921 George Halas took control of the Decatur Staleys and moved them to Chicago, where the Chicago Cubs ( Bear Cubs ) played baseball. For Halas, football players were bigger than baseball players, so he decided that his team would be the Bears ( adult Bears ).
Cincinnati Bengals
Same case as the Bills. The Cincinnati Bengals (Bengal Tigers) now have that name because between 1937 and 1941, there was a football team named after that in the southern Ohio city. The group chose Bengals because the Cincinnati Zoo had a rare breed of Bengal tiger.
Cleveland Browns
The Browns are the only North American team whose name is derived directly from someone. Although one of its colors is brown, the Cleveland team does not owe its name to the color but to Paul Brown, the franchise’s first coach and general manager.
Dallas Cowboys
The one now was the third name that the team had before even playing a game. And it is that the America’s Team was first the Steers ( Halters ) and then the Rangers, but its first president, Tex Schramm, discarded them because having an ox as a mascot was ridiculous and not to copy the Minor League Baseball team. that was in Dallas, respectively. In the end, in 1960, the Cowboys ( Cowboys ) were born—an unbeatable nod to Texas history.
Denver Broncos
In North America, they use the term bronco to refer to wild or little domesticated horses with a tendency to buck (for example, those seen in rodeos). These are very popular in the Denver area, so it was no wonder that the Broncos were the winner of the famous contest that gave name to one of the founders of the American Football League.
Detroit Lions
A method was similar to that of the Bears. The franchise, now based in Detroit, was born in 1930 as the Portsmouth Spartans but moved to Motor City four years later. Since there were already some felines there (the Detroit Tigers of the MLB), the team became the Detroit Lions ( Leones ) because they also wanted to be the kings of the NFL, so what better feline than the king of the jungle.
Green Bay Packers
The Indian Packing Company was a company dedicated to canning meat that had one of its factories in the small town of Green Bay (Wisconsin). One of his couriers, Curly Lambeau, founded the Green Bay Packers in 1919. The name ( Packers ) was a token of appreciation to the company’s owner for giving him the money to buy the team’s first uniforms.
Houston Texans
The youngest franchise in the NFL was born in 1999 to fill the void left in Houston by the Oilers’ departure to Tennessee and to balance the number of teams in the league. Bob McNair wanted to call his team Stallions but felt there were too many horses already (Broncos and Colts and the secondary Chargers logo). In the end, he settled on Texans to represent the bravery of the people of Texas.
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings signed forward Lucas Raymond to an eight-year, $64.6 million contract Monday, completing a deal with one of their best young players less than 72 hours before training camp begins.
Raymond will count $8.075 million against the salary cap through 2032. The 22-year-old was a restricted free agent without a contract for the upcoming NHL season and was coming off setting career highs with 31 goals, 41 assists and 72 points.
The Red Wings have another one of those in defenceman Moritz Seider, who won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2021-22.
Detroit is looking to end an eight-year playoff drought dating to the Original Six franchise’s last appearance in 2016.
Raymond, a Swede who was the fourth pick in 2020, has 174 points in 238 games since breaking into the league.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kirk Cousins led a flawless last-minute drive for Atlanta and connected with Drake London for a 7-yard touchdown with 34 seconds left to give the Falcons a 22-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.
Saquon Barkley dropped a short pass that stopped the clock with 1:46 left and forced the Eagles to settle for a field goal instead of a game-sealing first down. That was plenty of time for Cousins — especially against an Eagles defense playing soft coverage with a nonexistent pass rush.
The 36-year-old veteran, playing his second game since tearing his Achilles tendon last Oct. 29 while playing for Minnesota, shook off an uneven effort and hit Darnell Mooney for 21 and 26 yards on consecutive plays during the decisive drive.
Cousins found London on a short pass to his right for the tying score, and Younghoe Koo put Atlanta (1-1) on top with a 48-yard extra point after London was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. The go-ahead drive took just 65 seconds.
Jalen Hurts had his final pass intercepted by Jessie Bates III to seal Atlanta’s win and set off a wild celebration on the sideline.
The Eagles (1-1) went ahead on Hurts’ 1-yard tush push score with 6:47 left. Barkley finished with 95 yards on 22 carries in his home debut for Philadelphia, but his drop provided the Falcons with some hope.
And then Cousins started playing like the QB Atlanta thought it was getting when it signed him to a four-year, $180 million contract.
Cousins finished 20 of 29 for 241 yards and two touchdowns. Atlanta’s first TD was a 41-yarder from Cousins to Mooney, who finished with three catches for 88 yards.
Hurts was 23 of 30 for 183 yards, including a touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith. With No. 1 receiver A.J. Brown out with a hamstring injury, Smith led the Eagles with seven catches for 76 yards and a score.
Jake Elliott kicked two field goals for the Eagles. His 28-yarder with 1:39 left made it 21-15.
Atlanta kept stalling in the red zone, getting three field goals from Koo, before Cousins fired over the middle to Mooney, who shook loose from C.J. Gardner-Johnson and left him on the turf before he somersaulted into the end zone with 1:21 left in the third quarter for a 15-10 lead. Cousins failed on the 2-point conversion pass.
Hurts had some juice in his step during a second-quarter TD drive, running with abandon for big plays much like he did in the 2022 season. He spiked the ball in a rare, raw show of emotion on a 23-yard run, earning a delay-of-game penalty. He shrugged off the 5-yard setback and scrambled for 9 yards and 15 yards to move the Eagles to Atlanta’s 19.
With comedian Shane Gillis and actor Bradley Cooper among the fans cheering on the Eagles, Hurts connected with Smith in the back of the end zone for a 7-yard TD that made it 7-3.
Under new defensive coordinator Vince Fangio, the Eagles have established an early knack for allowing long drives that end with three points instead of seven. Koo kicked field goals of 39, 22 and 34 yards, the last one enough for a 9-7 lead in the third quarter. In their opener, the Eagles held the Packers to just three field goals when they drove inside the 20.
Questionable call
Rather than take a chip-shot field goal from Elliott, the Eagles’ fourth-and-4 gamble at Atlanta’s 9-yard line in the first quarter failed when Hurts threw an incomplete pass.
Elliott kicked a 29-yarder with 4:31 left in the third quarter for a 10-9 lead.
Running wild
Bijan Robinson ran for 97 yards for the Falcons. The Eagles stuffed him late on fourth-and-1 at the Atlanta 39.
Barkley was quiet until the go-ahead drive, a week after he rushed for 109 yards and scored three touchdowns against Green Bay. Eagles fans booed when the opening drive of the game ended without Barkley touching the ball. They went wild when he had consecutive 9-yard runs to open the second drive. Barkley had 40 yards rushing in the first half.
Foles honored
Former Eagles QB Nick Foles, who led the franchise to its only Super Bowl title, served as an honorary captain and led the crowd in a rendition of “Fly, Eagles, Fly.”
Injuries
The Falcons played without LB Nate Landman (calf, quad).
Up next
Atlanta hosts Super Bowl champion Kansas City on Sunday.
TORONTO – Singles star Leylah Fernandez and doubles specialist Gabriela Dabrowski will anchor Canada’s five-player lineup when the team tries to defend its Billie Jean King Cup title in mid-November.
The 26th-ranked Fernandez, the 2021 U.S. Open finalist from Laval, Que., is the lone Canadian in the top 100 of the WTA Tour’s singles rankings.
Dabrowski, from Ottawa, is ranked fourth on the doubles list. The 2023 U.S. Open women’s doubles champion won mixed doubles bronze with Felix Auger-Aliassime at the recent Paris Olympics.
Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, Ont., returns after a breakout performance last year, capped by her singles win in Canada’s 2-0 victory over Italy in the final. Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino is also back and Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion from Mississauga, Ont., returns to the squad for the first time since 2022.
“Winning the Billie Jean King Cup in 2023 was a dream come true for us, and not only that, but I feel like we made a statement to the world about the strength of this nation when it comes to tennis,” Canada captain Heidi El Tabakh said Monday in a release. “Once again, we have a very strong team this year with Bianca joining Leylah, Gaby, Rebecca and Marina, making it an extremely powerful team that is more than capable of going all the way.
“At the end of the day, our goal is to make Canada proud, and we’ll do our best to bring the same level of effort and excitement that we had in last year’s finals.”
Fernandez, who beat Jasmine Paolini to clinch Canada’s first-ever title at the competition, is ranked No. 42 in doubles.
Canada, which received an automatic berth as defending champion, will play the winner of the first-round tie between Great Britain and Germany on Nov. 17 at Malaga’s Martin Carpena Arena.
Australia, Italy and wild-card entry Czechia also received first-round byes. The tournament, which continues through Nov. 20, also includes host Spain, Slovakia, the United States, Poland, Japan and Romania.
Stakusic is up 27 spots to No. 128 in the latest world singles rankings. Marino is at No. 134 and Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, is ranked 167th.
Canada will look to become the first team since Czechia in 2016 to successfully defend its Billie Jean King Cup title.
Malaga will also host the Nov. 19-24 Davis Cup Final 8. The Canadian men qualified over the weekend with a 2-1 victory over Great Britain in Manchester.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
