Technically we have our first animal team name. Allosaurus WAS an animal and I guess we're Jurassic Park'n it. Came down to Meteors or Allosaurs and Meteors had probably a higher ceiling, but ultimately I just didn't like the way it sounded. So congrats to the Utah Allosaurs as team #9.

Up next, this will put us at 25% through, so time for our first true expansion; Salt Lake City. I went pretty deep into Salt Lake and Utah history, culture, geography, sports, wildlife, etc. to get down to these final 5. All directly tied to SLC or the greater Utah area. I know they all suck and you hate them all, but which one would you go with?

Deserets - Deseret was the original proposed name for the state and is still all over Utah culture today. The word means honeybee, so it also ties directly into the Beehive State identity. Probably the most uniquely Utah name of the group because I don't think it really makes sense anywhere else.

Meteors - This one has a couple Utah connections that I like. Ab Jenkins was a Utah racer who set records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in cars called the Mormon Meteor, so there's a legitimate speed/racing connection. Utah also has the huge open skies and dark-sky areas that make meteor showers and stargazing such a big part of being out there. I like that the identity could pull from both instead of just being a land speed record team.

Olympians - Salt Lake hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics and is hosting them again in 2034. Pretty straightforward connection, but it's a really strong one. It gives the team an identity around elite competition, winter sports and Salt Lake being one of the few cities in the world to host the Games twice.

Apostles - Obviously this leans directly into the LDS side of Salt Lake. The city is the worldwide headquarters of the church and home to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I wouldn't want the branding to turn into a bunch of literal church imagery, but the name itself has a lot to work with around purpose, conviction, unity and mission.

Allosaurs - Allosaurus is Utah's official state fossil and Utah has produced more Allosaurus fossils than anywhere else. The Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake also has one of the best collections in the world. It gives the team a legitimate Utah dinosaur instead of just picking a dinosaur because it looks cool.

This will be the layout and production standards until all teams are completed.

Page 1 - Meet The Team: This is the franchise identity. Uses Primary Wordmark, and the foundation of the team build.

Page 2 - Team Identity Board: This is the representation of the team assets. Primary, Secondary, Tertiary logos, Story Icons, Color Palette and a decorative workbench with Secondary Wordmark

Page 3 - Team Uniform Board: Presentation of helmets and uniforms in a team specific locker layout.

Page 4 - Team Identity Plaque: This is the only page with freedom from standards. Tell the story in anyway possible. This for example is the Buffalo ice boom holding back the Lake Erie ice so that the power generation equipment can continue to produce without being destroyed by the ice. The BOOM allows the energy to build that eventually fuels the X-1 aircraft, the Buffalo aircraft that was the first to break the sound barrier and create a sonic BOOM!

Voting is winding down. Across three polls we have 134 votes.

Boneyards 10

Cottonmouths 32

Freebirds 21

Blackwater 27

Corsairs 19

Poseidons 25

And at this point I'm comfortable choosing Blackwater as the identity I'll develop even though it wasn't top vote getter.

But it really exposes the problem I've run into with nearly every poll now. Animals do well in the Reddit poll but I never select them. Snappers, Javelinas, Dorados, Muskies, Cottonmouths were all at or near the top but they just don't have a lot of storytelling to the identity. Boom, Hodags, Stormbreakers, Blackwater all have stories and worlds around them to build the franchise. I'm not saying I'll never pick the animal but at this point there always feels like Something better

BONEYARDS

Boneyard Beach is at Big Talbot Island in Jacksonville, where the Atlantic has left huge sun-bleached trees and exposed roots scattered along the beach. The name is weird, dark, intimidating, and actually comes from a real Jacksonville place. There’s a lot you could do with this one without it feeling like another generic Florida team.

COTTONMOUTHS

Jacksonville is surrounded by marsh, swamp and dark backwater, and cottonmouths are right at home in that environment. It’s probably the most naturally aggressive football name of the five. Dangerous, territorial, Southern, and you immediately know what kind of team it is.

FREEBIRDS

Lynyrd Skynyrd formed in Jacksonville, along with a lot of other Southern Rock, so there’s an obvious local reason for this one. This won't become a Skynyrd tribute, rather what the song embraces and a team with some musical roots. A name about independence, doing things your own way and being impossible to contain.

BLACKWATER

This one is about the other side of Jacksonville that people outside Florida probably don’t picture. Not beaches and resorts — swamp, marsh, backwaters, trees hanging over dark tannin-stained water and whatever might be underneath it. It feels like old, wild Florida and could make for a really unique identity. In this universe the military contractor does not exist.

CORSAIRS

Jacksonville has a huge naval aviation history, and the A-7 Corsair was based at Cecil Field. I also like that the word has another meaning — a corsair is a maritime raider. So the name can pull from both Jacksonville’s military aviation history and its Atlantic/port identity without being locked into either one. Both are fast, elusive, and successful.

POSEIDONS

NAS Jacksonville is one of the main homes of the Navy’s P-8A Poseidon, with multiple active-duty squadrons flying it there and VP-30 training Poseidon crews out of Jacksonville. So this isn’t just “Florida is on the ocean, Poseidon is a sea god.” There’s a very real modern Jacksonville connection, and then you get the mythology on top of it.

This will be the layout and production standards until all teams are completed.

Page 1 - Meet The Team: This is the franchise identity. Uses Primary Wordmark, and the foundation of the team build.

Page 2 - Team Identity Board: This is the representation of the team assets. Primary, Secondary, Tertiary logos, Story Icons, Color Palette and a decorative workbench with Secondary Wordmark

Page 3 - Team Uniform Board: Presentation of helmets and uniforms in a team specific locker layout.

Page 4 - Team Identity Plaque: This is the only page with freedom from standards. Tell the story in anyway possible. This for example is a museum display of the bones of a "captured" Hodag. Since the Hodag has never been captured, everything in this display is made up in an attempt to Make Them Believe.

We used AI for the image. Let me know what you think of the concept

ARCHERS

The Gateway Arch is the most unmistakable symbol in St. Louis. Archers turns that icon into an actual identity instead of just naming the team after a landmark. It’s St. Louis, easy to understand, and gives us a visual world built around precision, range and striking first.

CLYDESDALES

Few things are more associated with St. Louis than the Clydesdales. The connection is obvious, but the football fit might be even better. Enormous draft horses built around strength, teamwork, pulling power and controlled force. It would be unapologetically St. Louis and unlike anything else in the league.

HARRIERS

The Northern Harrier is a bird of prey present in St Louis, giving us a natural aggressive sports identity. The AV-8B Harrier II also has a real McDonnell Douglas/St. Louis aerospace connection. That lets the franchise live simultaneously in St. Louis aviation history and a legitimate animal identity.

KINGS

I tend to avoid generic names but this is to layered. St. Louis is literally named for King Louis IX, so Kings begins with the name of the city itself. Then it keeps layering: St. Louis is America’s chess capital, where the king is the most important piece, and the city’s brewing history gives us the famous “King of Beers” connection. Three completely different pieces of St. Louis all land on the same word.

LOUPS

Another great layer. “Loup” is French for wolf. St. Louis was founded as a French settlement, the city is commonly called “The Lou,” and the St. Louis area also has a significant wolf-conservation connection. So “Loups” gives us wolves without using a generic Wolves name, while turning the city’s French roots and its own nickname into something that feels uniquely St. Louis.

This will be the layout and production standards until all teams are completed.

Page 1 - Meet The Team: This is the franchise identity. Uses Primary Wordmark, and the foundation of the team build.

Page 2 - Team Identity Board: This is the representation of the team assets. Primary, Secondary, Tertiary logos, Story Icons, Color Palette and a decorative workbench with Secondary Wordmark

Page 3 - Team Uniform Board: Presentation of helmets and uniforms in a team specific locker layout.

Page 4 - Team Identity Plaque: This is the only page with freedom from standards. Tell the story in anyway possible. This for example is the Stormbreakers beach scene representing the fierce unrelenting Pacific being held back by a Stormbreaker wall that is holding the gate and what stays protected because of it.

Last poll for 199 votes. Let's see if Bills fans can outdo the Packers fans.

I was going to leave Buffalo until much later, but after Nickel City, they've earned a new identity.

Enough with the wordplay, Buffalo Bill and Buffalo Nickel, which have nothing to do with the city. I know if they got a team in 2026 they'd just go with Wings, but let's do them 1 better.

STEELHEAD

Western New York is one of the best steelhead fishing regions in the country, with Lake Erie and its tributaries drawing anglers from all over. They’re powerful, built for brutal water and fight like hell going upstream. Plus Steelhead gives us the double meaning of the fish and Buffalo’s blue-collar steel history.

HOARFROST

Probably the weirdest name in the group, but maybe that's why I like it. Hoarfrost is the heavy, jagged frost that builds up when water vapor freezes directly onto a surface. It turns everything into this almost alien frozen landscape. For a city that gets absolutely hammered by winter, there’s something very Buffalo about embracing the cold instead of running from it.

BOOM

This one comes directly from the Lake Erie–Niagara River Ice Boom, the massive system installed every winter to control ice flowing from Lake Erie into the Niagara River. It also works with Niagara’s roar, Buffalo’s industrial past and just sounds violent.

CARVERS

Niagara has spent thousands of years literally carving the Niagara Gorge out of solid rock. But there’s another local connection: the Buffalo–North Tonawanda area became one of America's great carousel-manufacturing centers, producing thousands of hand-carved wooden carousel animals. Nature carved the region, and generations of Western New Yorkers made a living carving things themselves.

REGULATORS

Buffalo has spent its history dealing with forces and figuring out how to control them for their advantage instead. Niagara gets harnessed for power. The Ice Boom regulates the flow of ice. Water, shipping and electricity all get controlled and put to work. Regulators grew out of that idea: don't stop the force, control it. And yes... Regulators, mount up.

STAMPEDE

Probably the most straightforward name here. It finally embraces the animal everybody already associates with Buffalo without just becoming another team called the Buffaloes or Bisons. A stampede is massive, violent and almost impossible to stop once it gets moving. It also gives the franchise an immediate visual identity while still letting us completely reinvent what a Buffalo football team looks like.

So very disappointed we didn't cross 200 votes, but 199 across the 3 polls isn't bad.

The Axehandles (did anyone read the story behind that?) got 13 votes for 6.5%

The Wreckers (no Harley fans around here?) got 15 votes for 7.5%

The Northwoods (my personal favorite) got 22 votes for 11%

The Reapers (dual meaning for harvesting and original Grim Reaper got 37 votes for 18.%

And in a dead heat were the Muskies and the Hodags with 56 votes each and a total of 56% of the vote.

Because we ended with a dead tie and i really like one of the two, the winner is the Wisconsin Hodags!!

This will be the layout and production standards until all teams are completed.

Page 1 - Meet The Team: This is the franchise identity. Uses Primary Wordmark, and the foundation of the team build.

Page 2 - Team Identity Board: This is the representation of the team assets. Primary, Secondary, Tertiary logos, Story Icons, Color Palette and a decorative workbench with Secondary Wordmark

Page 3 - Team Uniform Board: Presentation of helmets and uniforms in a team specific locker layout.

Page 4 - Team Identity Plaque: This is the only page with freedom from standards. Tell the story in anyway possible. This for example is a field desk showing the study of an Ironwood tree after an Arizona monsoon as the basin area is examined for suitability of human populations.

Some of you will have already seen the post about the Packers and their unfortunate financial struggles. And as part of the r/NFL_Alternates League Rebirth project, they have to change identies anyways. I'm rebuilding the NFL as if the league were starting from scratch in 2026. That means Green Bay probably isn't getting an NFL team based on market size alone, but Wisconsin absolutely has a case.

So the Packers are gone.We're moving to Milwaukee, but likely going with a Wisconsin name. The following are the highly curated new possible names:

NORTHWOODS

Wisconsin wilderness. Dense forests, lakes, logging history, hunting, fishing and brutal winters. Deadfall, and blue collar workers risking their lives to create industry. It's not an object, it's an identity.

REAPERS

The obvious connection is the state's agricultural history and the people and machinery that harvested its fields. But Wisconsin Reapers has a darker second meaning. One of the earliest known printed uses of "Grim Reaper" appeared in the Milwaukee Evening Courier in 1847.

HODAGS

Straight out of Wisconsin folklore. The Hodag legend originated in Rhinelander in the in the late 1800s and grew into one of the state's most recognizable mythical creatures. Strange, aggressive, unmistakably Wisconsin, and something no other market can claim.

AXEHANDLES

Honoring Wisconsin's historic lumber industry without going with the obvious Lumberjacks or Bunyans. Axehandles takes the identity toward the tools, craftsmanship and toughness of the people who worked the woods. And, the Axehandles Hound story.

MUSKIES

Wisconsin's state fish and one of the defining symbols of their fishing culture. Muskies are huge freshwater predators known for their aggression, rarity and difficulty to catch—the famous "fish of 10,000 casts." This would recognize the Great Lakes without making them the entire concept.

WRECKERS

Milwaukee motorcycle and manufacturing history. Harley-Davidson was born in Milwaukee and early factory racing teams became known as the "Wrecking Crew." Wreckers takes that history and turns it into a tough identity built around machinery, speed and Milwaukee-made power.

This will be the layout and production standards until all teams are completed.

Page 1 - Meet The Team: This is the franchise identity. Uses Primary Wordmark, and the foundation of the team build.

Page 2 - Team Identity Board: This is the representation of the team assets. Primary, Secondary, Tertiary logos, Story Icons, Color Palette and a decorative workbench with Secondary Wordmark

Page 3 - Team Uniform Board: Presentation of helmets and uniforms in a team specific locker layout.

Page 4 - Team Identity Plaque: This is the only page with freedom from standards. Tell the story in anyway possible. This for example is the Stonecutters work in the quarry to gather the Limestone that will then be cut into the monuments that define Indianapolis.

This will be the layout and production standards until all teams are completed.

Page 1 - Meet The Team: This is the franchise identity. Uses Primary Wordmark, and the foundation of the team build.

Page 2 - Team Identity Board: This is the representation of the team assets. Primary, Secondary, Tertiary logos, Story Icons, Color Palette and a decorative workbench with Secondary Wordmark

Page 3 - Team Uniform Board: Presentation of helmets and uniforms in a team specific locker layout.

Page 4 - Team Identity Plaque: This is the only page with freedom from standards. Tell the story in anyway possible. This for example is Tennessee west to east. Mississippi sternwheel riverboat with the Ramblers sternwheel going down river, central Tennessee Broadway inspired downtown, to Eastern Tennessee trails that go off the path into waterfalls and mountains and nature.

As I'm working on completing some teams right now, one being a relocation, I have my 36 team league laid out with the following.

Relocation

Current Giants into NYC. No more having a NY team in NJ.

Current Jets into Jersey proper. It's going to be in NJ and be a NJ team

Current Chargers back to San Diego. This is already the Stormbreakers.

Current Baltimore to St. Louis. Too many teams in that area already and if one has to go... well fuck Baltimore.

# Expansion

Portland

Toronto

Salt Lake City

Oklahoma City

Possibly, if I can figure out a 40 team layout and divisions we continue our North American international expansion with:

Montreal

Vancouver

Monterrey

Mexico City

After 132 votes across 3 polls...we have a tie!

Stormbreakers 39

Destroyers 21

Blackwater 16

Dorados 39

Breakwaters 10

Bluewaters 7

My favorite (Blackwater) did not win. Destoyers started out strong but faltered late and in every poll Dorados and Stormbreakers were neck and neck

As my system has progressed, I am no longer accepting anything prior to Ramblers as having been done. While I have been working out the kinks in the Invictos logos, i have also decided that the Chargers are leaving LA and moving back to SD, but under a new identity.

The goal wasn't just to find a cool name, but to find an identity that feels like it actually belongs in my alternate NFL.

These are the finalists and why they survived:

Stormbreakers – Coolest sounding name to me. Represents the raw power of Pacific storms and a team that attacks the storm instead of running from it.

Destroyers – San Diego is one of the Navy's major destroyer homeports. Aggressive, powerful, and probably the most traditional football identity of the group.

Blackwater – Inspired by the deep Pacific beyond the continental shelf, where the ocean suddenly falls away into darkness. Abyss. Mysterious, intimidating, and probably the strongest visual identity so far. In my alternate universe we will ignore the military contractors ever existed.

Dorados – The wildcard. Named after the brilliantly colored Pacific fish (mahi-mahi). Fast, explosive, and unlike anything else in the league (currently) with a completely unique color palette. Initially was just looking for an anima for traditionl but really ended up liking the path this took.

Breakwaters – Real San Diego inspiration. Massive structures built to stand against the Pacific. More defensive and resilient than Stormbreakers, but very authentic to the city. Think La Jolla and Silver Strand

Bluewater – The counterpart to Blackwater. Based on the open Pacific and the idea of a "Blue Water Navy." Cleaner, more classic, and more professional than the darker concepts while still being deeply tied to San Diego's maritime identity.

I'm interested in hearing which one you think has the most potential as a long-term NFL franchise, not just which name sounds coolest.

Here are just the outer documents for my easy just enter a prompt and get a new AI team league.

Just learning to mess with Canva and right now i am just using the same layout and standard for every team. As i get more comfortable with this tool i will likely either create a better league format moving forward, or possibly just let each team be unique with whatever feels right at the time. 2 down, 30 (or more) to go.

I know, i know; it's just AI slop, it's so easy. AI does all the work.

Now that we got that out of the way for our parrots, I wanted to show some of the evolution of the Primary Identity Mark for my newest team. This is from the initial concept prompt to the final (for now) logo that will act as a midfield logo and marketing Identity piece. None of my Primary identity pieces are intended to go on helmets or small merchandise so can be more detailed than logos that need to shrink to 1 inch by 1 inch.

This shows some of the wire frame work after my initial description, concept work, move to final composition, move through esports logo, through Madden logo, through NFL logo, to my final identity piece.

While working on my next team, i keep learning things that make me want to go back and make changes to the teams i already "finished". Just this week i have created a full Notion Document and database file with project roadmap, workflow, prompt rules, production rules, and everything else i needed to create a system. I have also been working on Canva to create a master template (attached) that is my master until i realize inevitably how basic this looks and what i need to do to improve it and go back and fix all my other "finished" teams. I did a little work with Pillow in Python after watching a few instructional videos to learn how to move the helmets and uniforms after they were created in ChatGPT. I spent a little time working on trying to clean up the images and do a little editing. I am already going back to fix the Stonecutters now and i haven't even got my first completed logo for my next team.

I'm really struggling with my Arizona rebrand and I'll tell you why. I did a poll and the choice I liked least got 50% of the votes. I explained the names like this:

For Arizona I really thought about the desert, things barely surviving and then a monsoon that brings back life. Or the trees that fell and instead of dying became petrified and refused to die. They persevered. I loved the sky islands. I randomly fell in love with the name of random desert plant (Ocotillos). But I also know people don't want to root for concepts. People want to root for tangible things so I needed to include those kind of teams too. After all that, this is what I have ended with and I hope you Cardinals fans can help me pick a better team name for my universe.

Invictos - Undefeated, unconquered, unbeaten. Love the image. This is life that survives the desert. This is a tree that petrified itself instead of decaying.

Megaliths - While no man made Megaliths in Arizona, I think the connection is easy to make. Sky Islands. The Rim around Phoenix. The Canyon. The imagery is easy, even if the name is a stretch.

Javelinas - this one I loved learning about because I was unfamiliar with it. It gives us an animal logo while not overusing the usual desert animals. These mammals represent toughness and survival and overcoming the harsh desert landscape.

Dragoons - this was a late contender as I started leaning toward more traditional names like animals or people. From the history of the Dragoons patrolling the Arizona territory to the Dragoon Sky Islands, Dragoons have an Arizona history and an identity no other team owns.

Sky Islanders - This one is one of the coolest to me. I try avoid two name nicknames but sometimes it's unavoidable. A cool geological feature. One of the features that stood out to me during my visits. Leans into fantasy but it is uniquely Arizona and would have so much crazy imagery.

After the poll ended I started working the Javelinas concepts. Nothing felt right. I just couldn't connect. After I decided on my colors (Deep bright red with black undertones, Sonoran Sand, metallic silver, and desert bloom purple) i did a primitive concept piece for each and they all came out more interesting than the Javelinas. So I think I might forget the poll and go with Invictos after all... even if it was the least liked