XFL 2023 Logos, Names and Uniforms

[leopard88]

10 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

I look at the Arlington Renegades' new primary logo and I see nothing more egregious than a jumbled mess. There's a stylized A, a stylized R, a diagonal line that serves as both the stem of the A and the leg of the R, a couple of additional diagonal lines created by negative space within the logo, and a curved line that could serve to define the bowl of either a stylized R or a stylized D, the latter a nod to the team's old Dallas place name.

 

As for an homage to the Confederate Battle Flag/"Stainless Banner", there isn't a star to be glimpsed and a diagonal line isn't the crossed diagonals of the Confederate flag's saltire. Further, I'm not about to put any stock in the Renegades' slide presentation that claims,  "The diagonal line cutting through the R is an homage to the flags of rebellion flown throughout Texas' history." The members of this community are normally quick to deride such marketing-speak for the meaningless blather that it all too often is, yet we're going to accept at face value the notion that a modern professional sports franchise would base its visual identity upon one of the most divisive symbols in American history?         

 

I think the distinction here is the nature of the marketing speak.  It usually comes in the form of references to "the iconic jaws of Husky Stadium" or the "distinctive stars of the city flag" or "the world famous curve of the Gateway Arch".  This was a direct call back to  rebellion when referring to a form that could reasonably (thought admittedly not overtly) be linked back to the Confederate Battle Flag.  They could just have easily referred to the "independent spirit of our forefathers" or the "outlaw spirit of the frontier" in an effort to evoke the image they are trying to push, so they at least made an unfortunate choice in their marketing speak.

[IceCap]

11 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

As for an homage to the Confederate Battle Flag/"Stainless Banner", there isn't a star to be glimpsed and a diagonal line isn't the crossed diagonals of the Confederate flag's saltire. Further, I'm not about to put any stock in the Renegades' slide presentation that claims,  "The diagonal line cutting through the R is an homage to the flags of rebellion flown throughout Texas' history." The members of this community are normally quick to deride such marketing-speak for the meaningless blather that it all too often is, yet we're going to accept at face value the notion that a modern professional sports franchise would base its visual identity upon one of the most divisive symbols in American history?         

It's both stupid market-speak but also unfortunate. Nike was talking out of their ass when they compared their Olympic hockey sweaters to alchemy but at least they didn't allude to the swastika! 

[Brian in Boston]

I’m sorry, I just don’t see anything in the Arlington Renegades’ new primary mark that strikes me as being remotely evocative of the Confederate Battle Flag. The closest I get to “an homage to the flags of rebellion flown throughout Texas’ history” is that the diagonal which serves as the stem of the A and leg of the R could be seen as a flagpole, with the curve that serves as the bowl of the R meant to represent a flowing banner. 

And speaking of the aforementioned “flags of rebellion”, there were many that flew during the Texas Revolution including the 1824 Flag, the Bloody Arm Flag, the Burnet Flag, Captain Scott’s Independence Flag, the Come and Take It Flag, the de Zavala Flag,  Dodson’s Lone Star Flag, the San Jacinto Liberty Flag, and the Stephen F. Austin Flag amongst them.
 

Texans had engaged in rebellion - and fashioned and carried banners as part of their uprisings - long before the Lone Star state joined the Confederacy. I think it is far more likely that the marketing team behind XFL 3.0 was hoping to evoke the spirit of dissent that fueled the Texas Revolution , rather than embrace the divisiveness of the American Civil War.

 

[tBBP]

I guess I wasn't aware that anyone in here at all actually does believe any of that marketing speak drivel about the Texas rebellion flags...

 

...And even if accepting for a minute fraction of a moment that the team/league did reference the battle flags--confederate or otherwise--in drafting up that logo, how in the wild blue yonder could they be so tone-deaf as to even want to associate any of their team brands (and by extension the league itself) with one of the single most divisive symbols of this country's past history?

 

That's the thing that's sending me the most...

[Brian in Boston]

48 minutes ago, tBBP said:

… And even if accepting for a minute fraction of a moment that the team/league did reference the battle flags--confederate or otherwise--in drafting up that logo, how in the wild blue yonder could they be so tone-deaf as to even want to associate any of their team brands (and by extension the league itself) with one of the single most divisive symbols of this country's past history?

It strains credulity to believe that the executive and marketing teams behind XFL 3.0 would be “so tone deaf” as to want to purposely embrace the polarizing controversy that would quite obviously accompany the adoption of a symbol of the Confederate States of America in a team’s official branding.
 

That’s why I believe that references to “an homage to the flags of rebellion flown throughout Texas’ history” within the marketing-speak accompanying the unveiling of the Renegades’ new primary mark are meant to evoke the spirit of dissent that fueled the Texas Revolution.
 

Tying into the Texas Revolution could conceivably be part of a savvy and successful modern marketing campaign; embracing the role of Texas in the Confederacy is a public relations nightmare and commercial suicide.

[Indigo]

Don't start with the "Texas Revolution" BS.

Which one of these has a diagonal line?  

[gosioux76]

15 minutes ago, Brian in Boston said:

Tying into the Texas Revolution could conceivably be part of a savvy and successful modern marketing campaign; embracing the role of Texas in the Confederacy is a public relations nightmare and commercial suicide.

 

But as this discussion seems to suggest, their language was vague enough to cause at least some people to question their intent.

 

You're 100% right that it would seem unfathomable that they would intentionally embrace a polarizing topic, and that probably wasn't their intent. Nevertheless, if it raised the attention of people on these boards as being something untoward, then it stands to reason they're not alone.

 

For that reason alone, intent aside, it's a poorly communicated marketing message. 

 

[CaliforniaGlowin]

Just go back to the bandit logo. problem solved.

[eRay]

Before they mentioned flags I read it as an abstractly rebellious logo, especially for how simple it is. I knew they were in Dallas previously and probably wanted to stay there but it was made near-impossible, so I read the mark as a way to cross out the 'D' for Dallas while also forming an 'A' and 'R' for their new name. Argue on their choices for sure, I'm just saying they didn't really need to mention flags to get to a rebellious explanation for the mark.

[Brian in Boston]

59 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

For that reason alone, intent aside, it's a poorly communicated marketing message. 

I won’t argue with you there.

 

I’m just of the mind that it takes a truly concerted stre-e-e-e-e-e-e-etch of the imagination to see the Confederate Battle Flag in the Arlington Renegades’ logo even after I’ve read the asinine marketing-speak. 

[Brian in Boston]

1 hour ago, LA Fakers+ LA Snippers said:

Which one of these has a diagonal line?  

The Confederate Battle Flag.

 

Where does the Arlington Renegades’ logo have a second diagonal line that  crosses the first and forms a saltire? Where is there one star in said logo, never mind thirteen? I ask, because without those elements… well, frankly, I’m hard-pressed to see a Confederate Battle Flag.

 

Look, if you see an “homage” to the Confederate Battle Flag in the primary mark of the Arlington Renegades, so be it. Honestly, the only thing possibly flag-related that I see in the mark is the diagonal serving as a stylized flagpole, with the bowl of the R serving as a stylized flag.  
 

Now, I’ll concede that takes a pretty significant stretch of the imagination on my part.  However, at least the two elements of a flag - a flagpole and a banner - are present in the diagonal line and the bowl. By contrast, the jump from nothing more than a diagonal line to the specificity of the Confederate Battle Flag… well, that strikes me as one hell of a jump.

 

Whatever the XFL brass and their design team were going for with the new primary mark of the Arlington Renegades, one thing is clear: unless  they were shooting for miserable design, they failed.

[raz]

To be fair, NONE of those flags are technically "flags of Texas revolution" - these are. 

 

[Silent Wind of Doom]

15 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

I look at the Arlington Renegades' new primary logo and I see nothing more egregious than a jumbled mess.

 

3 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

I’m sorry, I just don’t see anything in the Arlington Renegades’ new primary mark that strikes me as being remotely evocative of the Confederate Battle Flag.

 

40 minutes ago, Brian in Boston said:

Look, if you see an “homage” to the Confederate Battle Flag in the primary mark of the Arlington Renegades, so be it.

 

The logo is lines.  It's just lines.  Nobody ever said it looks like the flag except for whoever was in charge of that graphic.  Whether it's someone with the team or with the league or some rando whose work nobody checked.  Any commentary and critique is with that tweet and whoever is responsible.  We don't know who that is.  But it's extremely silly.

The flags posted have shown that there appears to be no possible evidence of any other flag that tweet could possibly be referring to besides the idea of "Nobody could be that stupid."

[tigers]

Here is your Ouston.......

 

 

 

[BengalErnst]

There is also a new IFL team called the Tulsa oilers which resembles the Houston oilers from the nfl much closer than the xfl team ever did 

[luckman]

Slightly off-topic but this is driving me nuts so I thought I'd try it here.  Can anyone help identify this helmet? I was thinking it was an XFL team but I can't find anything close after various internet searches.  Any ideas?

Edited November 11, 2022 by officeglenn
Formatting

[Cujo]

1 minute ago, luckman said:

Slightly off-topic but this is driving me nuts so I thought I'd try it here.  Can anyone help identify this helmet? I was thinking it was an XFL team but I can't find anything close after various internet searches.  Any ideas?

 

Isn't that the college team Bobby Boucher played on?

[Bomba Tomba]

16 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

Isn't that the college team Bobby Boucher played on?

Nope, that's a warthog. He played on the Mud Dogs

[GDAWG]

3 hours ago, luckman said:

Slightly off-topic but this is driving me nuts so I thought I'd try it here.  Can anyone help identify this helmet? I was thinking it was an XFL team but I can't find anything close after various internet searches.  Any ideas?

 

Maybe it's a high school team?

[luckman]

I thought about that too but I actually have this same mini helmet signed by several people including one that added "HC/GM" which makes me think it is a pro team