As we slog through the dog days of draft season – you know, this bleak period in April when we spend each day flip-flopping our opinions because there is nothing actually new happening – I figured it was time to shed light on a different storyline that deserves our attention.
The New York Jets’ identity crisis.
And I’m not talking about whether they want to be a ground-and-pound offense or if they should run more man coverage. I’m talking about the symbol that defines the organization’s existence.
As most Jets fans probably know, the franchise unveiled a new logo and uniforms nearly one year ago (April 15, 2024). The simplified, classic look received rave reviews from fans. It shined in comparison to the messy attempt at a modern identity that the team tried and failed to establish from 2019-24.
Every dedicated Jets fan will tell you the new logo and uniforms are a night-and-day upgrade over their predecessors. The differences are palpable. Whether you put them side-by-side or not, it should be impossible not to realize the team switched to a new logo and uniforms.
Yet… much of the world still hasn’t caught on.
That includes the official website of the National Football League.
It’s 2025, people. A whopping 361 days have passed since the Jets waved goodbye to this hideously wordy logo, featuring way too many letters fighting for any sliver of space they can find inside a claustrophobic vessel. (Perhaps this logo was an ode to the New York City subway system?)
How could the NFL’s official website have failed to update the logo of one of its teams after a full year?
If the NFL doesn’t care, it is okay for other media outlets to not care, too.
ESPN promoted the Jets’ season opener against the San Francisco 49ers with the old logo.
It is befuddling – until you realize the Jets themselves have not fully committed to the new logo.
Throughout the 2024 season, the faces of the Jets organization continued to don gear featuring the old logo.
To the Jets’ credit, they have made improvements since the offseason.
At Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey’s introductory press conference, we received our first look at an updated wordmark on the podium, finally eradicating the old wordmark that somehow lasted throughout the entire 2024 season.
This is a huge step, as that podium is seen by millions of eyes throughout the year. But there is still work to be done.
As seen in an Instagram post from Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon, who recently visited the Jets’ facility, the team still has not updated the logo on its practice field.
Is it that hard to paint a new logo on the field? I don’t know, maybe it is; I am just a lousy writer with no education in the industry of end zone painting. But for an organization worth just under $7 billion, I cannot imagine it would be all that difficult.
The Jets have a new logo, and much of the world doesn’t realize it. The team itself deserves some of the blame for its half-hearted effort to market the rebrand.
However, that isn’t an excuse for the other multi-billion dollar corporations that lack the perceptiveness to notice that one of the NFL’s mere 32 franchises got an entirely new logo nearly a year ago. These companies broadcasted and analyzed 20 Jets preseason and regular season games in 2024, yet never noticed that the logo changed?
Or, perhaps they were just asleep watching a 5-12 team that ranked 24th in scoring.
Maybe if the Jets start playing some exciting football, the world will catch on to their new logo. Perhaps having your logo changed is a privilege reserved for good little teams that did their chores (winning games).
Or is it?
The Los Angeles Chargers introduced a new primary logo in 2020. The changes were even more subtle than the Jets’.
To be clear, the change is definitely noticeable to people who bother to pay attention, but if there are people out there who still have not recognized that the Jets’ logo changed, then this should be an imperceptible difference to them.
Yet, NFL.com immediately acknowledged this change. If you revisit their articles from the next few months after Los Angeles introduced the new logo, you can see the freshly redesigned bolt proudly displayed.
This was after a 2019 season where the Chargers won – wait for it – five games.
The New York Jets have an identity crisis. A small part of it is their fault, but it is mostly a bizarre phenomenon beyond their control. For whatever reason, the world chooses to ignore the fact that the Jets have a new logo. This widespread erasure of the Jets’ beautiful new logo is a disservice to humanity, and we must stand against it together.
Apologies for the tangent – back to our regularly scheduled draft-season programming of debating whether one inch of arm length is enough to prevent someone from succeeding as an NFL tackle.
