In this modern age, we are constantly struck by the idea of brand loyalty. How will customers or fans make that connection to a company or team without continuity in a name? While Green Bay has always been the Packers, not all teams have always played under the name they have today.
The Chicago Bears started out as the Decatur Staleys. The Decatur Staleys? Try to imagine today’s fans cheering on the mighty Decatur Staleys.
When the AFL came into being in 1960, New York’s team was the New York Titans. After two unproductive seasons, the new ownership changed the name to the New York Jets. Years later, the Titans would resurface in the NFL when Tennessee changed its name from the Oilers to the Titans after moving from Houston to Nashville (with a brief stint in Memphis as the Tennessee Oilers).
In 1983, the USFL had a franchise start in Boston, Massachusetts as the Boston Breakers. In 1984 they moved to New Orleans and became the New Orleans Breakers, followed by a 1985 move to Portland, Oregon and another name change; this time to the Portland Breakers.
The New York Stars of the World Football League of the mid-1970s moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, played one game as the Charlotte Stars before changing their name to the Charlotte Hornets more than a decade before the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA.
The Kansas City Chiefs have some of the most vocal and loyal fans in the NFL, few of them were there to cheer on the team when they were first known as the Dallas Texans. The NFL would again bring back a previously used AFL name when the Houston expansion franchise took the Texans name in 2002.
The name game is also prevalent in the Canadian Football League. The most extreme CFL example would be the Montreal Alouettes. The Alouettes played in the CFL from 1946 until the team ceased to exist in 1981. In 1982, a new Montreal soccer team joined the CFL, the Montreal Concordes. Two years later, the Concordes were renamed the Alouettes before closing soon after. The saga of the Alouettes does not end there. The CFL had a short-lived franchise in the American city of Baltimore that debuted as the Baltimore Colts, and then, due to litigation, changed its name to the Baltimore CFL Colts and Baltimore CFLers, before ultimately settling on the Baltimore Stallions. When the NFL announced that the Cleveland Browns were moving to Baltimore and becoming the Ravens, ownership of the Baltimore Stallions moved the team to Montreal and it became the latest incarnation of the Montreal Alouettes.
The Arizona Cardinals, at the time they were playing in Chicago, were known early on as the Racine Normals.
Originally playing football as the Portsmouth Spartans, the Detroit Lions would go on to become one of the oldest franchises in the NFL.
Playing their first games as the Boston Patriots, the team changed its geographic name to New England without even moving. No wonder the Phoenix Cardinals similarly became the Arizona Cardinals without moving.
Due to World War II and a shortage of players, the Eagles and Steelers merged for a year to form the Phil-Pitt Steagles.
The Rams have been the Cleveland Rams and Los Angeles Rams before settling in St. Louis as the St. Louis Rams in 1995.
Although Seattle has always been the Seahawks, there was a previous Seahawks in professional football. In 1946, the AAFC had a team called the Miami Seahawks. That year, Miami was horrible on and off the field and ended up retiring and going broke.
The World Soccer League of the 1970s had a team known as the Memphis Southmen, the franchise had originally been planned to be in Toronto and nicknamed the Toronto Northmen.
Even the National Football League itself was originally called the American Professional Football Association, or APFA.
So really… what’s in a name?