Football [NFL] fans: What are the origins of your team's names?

San Francisco became famous because of the 1849 gold rush, after gold was discovered in 1848. People who came to California to mine for gold were called ”‘49’ers”.

The football team’s offensive line was once called the “goal rush”.

Lions are native to Detroit, hence the name, Silly.
“GO WITH WHAT YOU KNOW!”It’s the team war cry.

@zenvelo That was one I already knew :D Appreciate the effort though.

@lucillelucillelucille Forgive my ignorance, but I was unaware actual lions were roaming around motortown.
Must be terrifying for the locals.

Without bothering to do any supplementary research:

Some of them are self-evident, such as the Houston Texans.

Baltimore Ravens: IIRC, Baltimore was the primary residence of Eddy A Poe, who wrote “The Raven”.

Green Bay Packers: Lambeau was running low on funds, so he arranged for this guy who owned a meat packing company to invest in the team. The primary condition of the investment was that the team be named the Packers.

Chicago Bears: The Cubs were already established in Chicago, so Halas went with another ursine name, I guess for nominal familiarity.

New England Patriots: anyone who roots against them in unPatriotic! ;-p

@ucme- It is and is why I don’t wear a gazelle steak strapped to my ass when I go there.

@Brian1946 Good stuff man, had an idea about Green Bay but wasn’t sure. Baltimore I had no clue about, so this is what I’m after.

@lucillelucillelucille “Hey lady, that’s a fine rump ya got there!”

Wait stop! Does this mean tigers are prowling in the streets of Cincinatti?
Surely not!

See, over here, our football teams have boring names like United – City – Town.
There are the occasional “extravagant” ones like Athletic -Wanderers – Hotspur but none so interesting as the US versions.

The names which don’t have an actual tie in, are chosen simply because it is a tough representation. Bears, lions, tigers (oh my!), Vikings, raiders, all give a tough mental image.

Baseball isn’t a contact sport, hence names can be cute, or a name that can have a cute mascot.

Basketball teams tend towards either fierce, or fleet names.

Bowling teams are named after a pub, or neighborhood dry cleaners.

I’m fairly certain the Steelers got their name from the Pennsylvania steel industry, got that from The Deerhunter movie.

The Cleveland Browns were named for their co-founder and original coach, Paul Brown.

Baltimore was the Cleveland Browns after owner Art Modell left Cleveland and moved the team to Baltimore. There was a battle over the name, however. I think it went to court and the city of Cleveland won and the NFL agreed to allow an expansion team to form up there. Since the team in Baltimore had no name, they looked at the history of Baltimore and found it was the home of Edgar Allen Poe. So they took the name of one of his poems, The Raven

@seawulf575 Yeah, the Ravens has been explained already, up there ^^^ look!

Sometimes the name is chosen as a “fierce” foe. A Tiger, a Lion, a Bear are all examples. The one that I don’t understand is a college team…the Ohio State Buckeyes. Yes, I know Ohio is the Buckeye state and that’s where their name came from, but their mascot is a 6’ tall poisonous nut. Just doesn’t inspire fear, I’m afraid.

I don’t watch any NFL anymore but I used to really like the Seahawks. I think the name choice is pretty obvious.

The Raiders, are named after pirates.