Broncos written in Browns endzone... in Browns font. (1986-87)

[mediocreguy]

I was watching the old 1986 AFC Championship game yesterday, and I don't know how I missed it before, but the Broncos, when playing in Cleveland, were given an endzone complete with the word Broncos written in the Browns font. Not only that, but they made a makeshift Broncos helmet (with the D logo minus the horse). I'd love to see this kind of stuff nowadays, though I'm sure it'll never happen outside of a Super Bowl.

Anyway, here's a blog post someone did with pictures. http://theaxisofego.com/2012/02/02/you-wont-see-this-again-anytime-soon/

And here's some visual evidence:

[omnivore]

Interesting

[MJWalker45]

Funny thing is, I watched that game live and still never noticed it until years later. I remember the AFC playoffs between Kansas City and Miami had both teams helmets at midfield. I think this was the only time Cleveland did it but it has a precedent.

[illwauk]

This actually used to be a lot more common and usually happened for big games. Back in 1983, the Packers had a pair of green and gold helmets in each endzone, but for the famous Monday Night game against Washington, the helmets in one endzone were re-painted burgundy and gold.

I also remember seeing a Monday Night game between the Packers and Jets from County Stadium where each team had a SMALL (presumably because the Brewers didn't want any more paint than necessary on their field) wordmark in one of the endzones.

[VandyDelphia Mike]

Has this happened for a non-Super Bowl since the Saints home game in Giants Stadium?

[cmm]

Has this happened for a non-Super Bowl since the Saints home game in Giants Stadium?

Do the London games count? The Giants-Dolphins game had "Dolphins" in both end zones, but they now put both teams in an end zone. Here's the field for Broncos-49ers; each team had an endzone but only 49ers logos were painted at the 25s.

[mjmatias]

The Kansas City Chiefs used to place their helmet and the opposing teams helmet in midfield during the early '70's, before they moved to Arrowhead stadium.

[kajeet]

That would be cool if they did that now, but Emperor Goodell would NEVER let that happen.

[The_Admiral]

It's mostly off topic, but does anyone know the name of the typeface for the Broncos' old wordmark? I have a lookalike called Casil, but it has another, more famous name, and it's slipping my mind.

I like it, certainly more than the Browns' Optima, which never fit right to me.

[Raymie]

Perhaps that's a condensed version of Clarendon?

[Cujo]

This was also done during the 1985 AFC title game at the Orange Bowl between the Dolphins and Patriots. Needless to say, the road team also won this one.

Skip to 5:47

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5VszkxeTr8

[Burning River]

I forgot all about this too! I remember being mad that the year that Denver hosted Cleveland, both end zones were the same DENVER in one BRONCOS in the other (I think... or both were (BRONCOS). I thought Denver refused to do it or something. hated them even more! By then, I'm sure that the NFL Changed it. Did the NFC ever do it? For the Seahawks at LA Raiders in the 1983 AFC Championship...the Seahawks had a blue end-zone at the LA Coliseum.

[ltjets21]

In the Documentary namath you can see when the Jets hosted the 49ers they put a small 49ers script in one endzone, as well as the sourdough sam logo.

[dbadefense1990]

I forgot all about this too! I remember being mad that the year that Denver hosted Cleveland, both end zones were the same DENVER in one BRONCOS in the other (I think... or both were (BRONCOS). I thought Denver refused to do it or something. hated them even more! By then, I'm sure that the NFL Changed it. Did the NFC ever do it? For the Seahawks at LA Raiders in the 1983 AFC Championship...the Seahawks had a blue end-zone at the LA Coliseum.

Maybe this was the drive of creating unique AFC/NFC Championship Game logos, starting in the late 1990s. Maybe the rationale was that the match was a championship game of some sort in the NFL, hence the need to have both participants' names on the end zones. But the location of the title game gave the home team the option of stylizing the names.

[Raymie]

I forgot all about this too! I remember being mad that the year that Denver hosted Cleveland, both end zones were the same DENVER in one BRONCOS in the other (I think... or both were (BRONCOS). I thought Denver refused to do it or something. hated them even more! By then, I'm sure that the NFL Changed it. Did the NFC ever do it? For the Seahawks at LA Raiders in the 1983 AFC Championship...the Seahawks had a blue end-zone at the LA Coliseum.

Maybe this was the drive of creating unique AFC/NFC Championship Game logos, starting in the late 1990s. Maybe the rationale was that the match was a championship game of some sort in the NFL, hence the need to have both participants' names on the end zones. But the location of the title game gave the home team the option of stylizing the names.

Consider though that the NFL made logos for everything starting in the second half of the 1990s — divisional playoffs, Wild Card, kickoff weekend, probably the draft... Plus NBC, CBS and Fox all used them in the opens for their respective games.

[The_Admiral]

Perhaps that's a condensed version of Clarendon?

Yeah, could be in the Clarendon family. A few things look a little different (numbers, mostly) but I can see the similarities.

[illwauk]

Just found this... skip to 1:30 to see a set of solid red helmets for the Cardinals. I'm guessing the white outlines had something to do with why they didn't make the helmets white instead.

[browna]

This was also done during the 1985 AFC title game at the Orange Bowl between the Dolphins and Patriots. Needless to say, the road team also won this one.

Skip to 5:47

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5VszkxeTr8

That painting of New England's endzone is atrocious. Different size fonts (the T, and the S) and spacing? I am guessing they cheaped out and kept some of the letters from a prior game, to spell Patriots.

Edit: The Dolphins hosted the Browns the week before in the Orange Bowl, and prior to that, it was probably the Orange Bowl Game, Penn State vs Oklahoma. So no idea where the big "T"'s came from (dig up, stupid (Simpson's reference) or the lonely "s" at the end.

[dfwabel]

This was also done during the 1985 AFC title game at the Orange Bowl between the Dolphins and Patriots. Needless to say, the road team also won this one.

Skip to 5:47

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5VszkxeTr8

That painting of New England's endzone is atrocious. Different size fonts (the T, and the S) and spacing? I am guessing they cheaped out and kept some of the letters from a prior game, to spell Patriots.

Edit: The Dolphins hosted the Browns the week before in the Orange Bowl, and prior to that, it was probably the Orange Bowl Game, Penn State vs Oklahoma. So no idea where the big "T"'s came from (dig up, stupid (Simpson's reference) or the lonely "s" at the end.

The Orange Bowl game did not have team names in the endzones until later in the 1989 game. Since the endzones just said, "Orange Bowl", they were most likely using part of the "B" for a "P", flipping the letter "E" for one and using the "I" twice.

[mjrbaseball]

This was also done during the 1985 AFC title game at the Orange Bowl between the Dolphins and Patriots. Needless to say, the road team also won this one.

That painting of New England's endzone is atrocious. Different size fonts (the T, and the S) and spacing? I am guessing they cheaped out and kept some of the letters from a prior game, to spell Patriots.

Edit: The Dolphins hosted the Browns the week before in the Orange Bowl, and prior to that, it was probably the Orange Bowl Game, Penn State vs Oklahoma. So no idea where the big "T"'s came from (dig up, stupid (Simpson's reference) or the lonely "s" at the end.

To me, the letters in PATRIOTS appear to be hand-painted, without using a stencil or any guidelines.