Last year, The Sporting News published an article on the standardization of Super Bowl logos. The key takeaway from this piece was essentially the no fun league strikes again by eliminating one-off visuals. The counter argument is simple. Check out the Super Bowl XXXVIII logo.
This is among the most unprofessional logos you will ever lay eyes on. I still remember seeing it for the first time when playing Madden 2004. I thought it was one of those generic logos EA Sports would use for its create-a-team feature. Look at this thing. It screams, EA Sports generic logo.
However, this was the real deal. Somehow, people in the NFL office felt the Super Bowl XXXVIII logo should be ugly, odd and completely unprofessional. You will find countless design school students capable of churning out rushed mockups better than this finished product in their sleep.
That brings us back to the current corporate turn Super Bowl logos have taken since Super Bowl LI and, to a greater extent, from XLV onwards. They may not be exciting or localized, but they are worthy of football’s single biggest event.
Look, there are any number of reasons to criticize Rodger Goodell and the NFL. But the Super Bowl logo isn’t one of them. Seriously, I’m far more upset at the NBA for no longer putting the Playoffs and Finals logos on the court during the postseason than this.
The yearning for unique Super Bowl logos just feels like nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. A desire for some folks to have stuff they thought was cool in their younger days. In reality, only a few of these were any good. Most were average at best.
And then you get the Super Bowl XXXVIII logo which is an absolute turd. This is without a doubt the reason why the NFL standardized the big game’s visuals. Having a professional, albeit boring, logo is far superior to whatever was happening to end the 2003 season.
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