Proposed Patriots Helmets

[cmm]

I remember hearing a story here and/or at the Uni Watch Blog about the Patriots showing their fans a new logo they were thinking of changing to that got booed in favor of good old Pat Patriot. I was messing around at Getty Images looking for old pictures of Shea Stadium when I came across these. Might one of these be it?

Proposed Patriots Helmet?

Proposed Patriots Helmet 2?

I linked to the thumbnails since the actual sized images have a huge NFL watermark on them.

The caption says:

New England Patriots Helmet Design

LOS ANGELES - APRIL 1: Proposed helmet design for the New England Patriots submitted on April 1, 1978. (Photo by NFL Photos/Getty Images)

for both of them.

If the links don't work, just do an advanced search in the sports section for New England Patriots with April 1, 1978 in the date range.

If these are legit, I applaud the Pats fans of the 70s for their taste; Pat is superior to both of these.

[STL FANATIC]

Whether those are the specific one or not, it's the first I've seen of them. Hell of a find.

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

so thats the genesis of the flying elvis.

[SmoothieX]

I love the Pats, can't sand the logo.

[DGivens87]

Wow...fantastic find, cmm! I've only been looking for these proposed helmet designs for the past, I dunno, six years. (I pretty much joined this board in an effort to find these designs!)

[frozenguy]

UGLY!!!

[Jezus_Ghoti]

Super cool find. It's crazy to think that they may have had the rough idea for the flying Elvis in their heads for that many years.

[Gothamite]

Great find.

Wonder if the designer from Evenson Design Group knew about those when he sketched this:

[BlueSky]

I love the Pats, can't sand the logo.

I wouldn't even try sanding a logo, not without a very fine grit paper at least.

[neo_prankster]

That first one would've been okay without the stars.

The second one would've looked too much like the old Seahawks had the red stripes wrapped around the helmet.

[oz615]

New England Patriots Helmet Design

LOS ANGELES - APRIL 1: Proposed helmet design for the New England Patriots submitted on April 1, 1978. (Photo by NFL Photos/Getty Images)

for both of them.

That had to be some kind of sick April Fool's Day joke back in the day or something.

[cmm]

New England Patriots Helmet Design

LOS ANGELES - APRIL 1: Proposed helmet design for the New England Patriots submitted on April 1, 1978. (Photo by NFL Photos/Getty Images)

for both of them.

That had to be some kind of sick April Fool's Day joke back in the day or something.

Ha, I didn't even consider anything like that. When I see April 1, I think Rusty Staub's birthday, not April Fools Day.

[toxostoma rufum]

I remember going to a game at Foxboro as a kid, and I believe it was in the early 80's. At halftime they brought out a proposed logo onto the field that looked a lot like the Flying Elvis (more so than the above designs) for fans to give their voice to: Cheer Yay or Nay. Upon further review, it may have been logo #2.

The entire place booed the logo.

When the Flying Elvi were revealed I thought it was rather odd, remembering back to the prototypes.

[totc]

I remember going to a game at Foxboro as a kid, and I believe it was in the early 80's. At halftime they brought out a proposed logo onto the field that looked a lot like the Flying Elvis (more so than the above designs) for fans to give their voice to: Cheer Yay or Nay. Upon further review, it may have been logo #2.

The entire place booed the logo.

When the Flying Elvi were revealed I thought it was rather odd, remembering back to the prototypes.

I had read about that in Will McDonough's column in The Globe -- sometime between 1985-87. I've never seen a photo of it, though.

When you say "brought out a proposed logo," did they just lay it in the end zone or something?

[Spearhead]

I remember going to a game at Foxboro as a kid, and I believe it was in the early 80's. At halftime they brought out a proposed logo onto the field that looked a lot like the Flying Elvis (more so than the above designs) for fans to give their voice to: Cheer Yay or Nay. Upon further review, it may have been logo #2.

The entire place booed the logo.

When the Flying Elvi were revealed I thought it was rather odd, remembering back to the prototypes.

I think I remember that as well. It might have been an Oiler game. I think that the logo WAS in the end zone.

[SmoothieX]

I love the Pats, can't sand the logo.

I wouldn't even try sanding a logo, not without a very fine grit paper at least.

Does 80 grit work for you?