The Atlanta Falcons showed off a retro team symbol on their social media platforms this week, sparking backlash on social media from fans who said the image looked uncomfortably similar to German Nazi images from World War II.
Red, white and black stripes adorned the familiar Falcons logo on the team’s Instagram and X accounts Wednesday.
It was called “New PFP” on X, short for “new profile picture.”
A team representative, reached Thursday afternoon, said the Falcons do not have a “new logo” and declined further comment.
The Reichskriegsflagge-style images sparked a wave of taste-challenged World War II-themed comments and jokes on the Falcons’ social media pages.
The artwork seemed like a misguided effort to honor the 1966 expansion Atlanta Falcons.
The Falcons next take the field on Sunday, hosting the San Francisco 49ers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in an old-fashioned NFC West showdown in which Atlanta is expected to carry throwback threads.
“There was absolutely no bad intent, and I can’t imagine in a million years the Atlanta Falcons would do something like” seek Nazi alignment, sports logo historian Chris Creamer told NBC News on Thursday.
“It’s a homecoming weekend for the team, and the social media team just wanted to dress like the players were going to dress, and that’s a very common thing that social media accounts do in all sports,” he said. “If a team is wearing a retro uniform, their profile picture will usually update to match that.”
Creamer didn’t blame the Falcons for originally posting the image, but he wondered if the team could have avoided some of the blowback.
“I think if I was in the room with the Falcons, I honestly wouldn’t have noticed it when I pressed send,” he said.
“But I would have, once the answers started coming as fast as they were coming and it got out of hand,” he said. “At this point they could have taken it out and tried another one. At this point it seems a bit stubborn to continue.”
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