Miami Dolphins Need Logo Change
By Brian Miller
Sorry “Dol-Fans” but the Miami Dolphins logo sucks. Change it. Soon. Please? Earlier this week Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross talked to season ticket holders and one of the more contentious fan notes from the conversation was a question directed to Ross about changing the logo. Ross admitted that it was something they are looking into in terms of fan interest.
Mark me down as one of those fans who support it! Strongly.
The Phins, due to NFL rules can not change, alter, or re-imagine their logo until 2013. No problem, to get it right you need time and honestly why not take the new fan friendly direction the team is going and “Poll-it”? Many in the off-mainstreet media find everything they can to poke fun at the Dolphins. I have grown so tired of the digs I created a weekly/bi-weekly/maybe monthly “Idiot of the week“. We will get to more of that later today.
Some believe that the Dolphins will find a way to screw up a logo change and point to the uniforms of the Miami Marlins as proof that Miami just can’t seem to get anything right. I’m on record here and now to say I like the Miami Marlins new look. I would have preferred more retention of the Florida “marlin” but the more I look at the color scheme, it’s a perfect representation of the city the team represents. By the way, the Marlins will be featured in July on Showtime’s “Franchiches” this year. It’s their MLB version of Hard Knocks.
Back to the topic at hand. I suppose I should give a reason to why I hate the Dolphins logo. The pure and simple of it? It’s a cartoon. A freaking cartoon. To me, the logo represents everything that failed with characters like Jar Jar Binks and the Ewoks from the Star Wars series. It represents the ushering out of both Don Shula and Dan Marino, and don’t think for a moment that it represents winning. It doesn’t.
The Dolphins changed from the old “style” which itself had been tweaked at times to the Jimmy Johnson cartoon version a few years after JJ took over from Shula. It has undergone a few tweaks as well. A football between it’s flippers? Seriously. A snarl, a grin, a helmet, no helmet, little pieces here and there that have made their way onto T-shirts and coffee mugs. NOT however on the tattoo on my arm. That remains the old logo and forever will.
The old logo in and of itself is nothing to look at these days and to be honest, we really can’t go to a “throwback” look. It wouldn’t really work with today’s marketing campaigns. So in no way am I saying to return to that look. (It’s the one next to the current logo in the image above). It’s too flat and frankly too outdated. But it isn’t a cartoon. If I were Ross’ design team, I would start there and work into the present.
This “logo” the logo we currently use now, also represents something else to those of us who have been fans from the days of Shula and Marino. It represents Dave Wannstedt and Jay Fiedler, Cam Cameron and Ted Ginn, Nick Saban and Alabama, Bill Parcells and Tony Sparano. It represents losing. Why should the Dolphins not be poked fun at when the very symbol of their team is a cartoon? Looking around the landscape of the NFL many teams have never touched their logo. Teams like the Steelers, Cowboys, and Packers have made very minor almost unnoticeable changes to their uniforms over the decades. Other teams made vast changes for the better. Remember the old “Patriot”?
The Dolphins need to change this mess. I’m not saying that a logo change will suddenly make the team winners again, but if by chance there is some “football” higher power. A “Hall of Fame God” that you pray too, would it hurt? Would changing the image that associates with Jimmy Johnson for Don Shula and Jay Fiedler for Dan Marino not at least be something the masses of superstitious fans should consider? Let’s face it, “superstition” goes hand in hand with every sport.
From how you wear your socks to what shoe you put on first. Jason Taylor had pre-game rituals. One of which was after his locker at the stadium was set up for the game, no one was allowed to touch it. It continues on and on across the sports world. Why should we summarily dismiss the losing that has been associated with this logo over the last decade?
I doubt that Stephen Ross will make major changes to the logo. A deeper color combination maybe, a brighter one perhaps, maybe a sleeker, slender dolphin arching through a re-designed sunburst style. Perhaps he goes with a different helmet design and leaves traces of the style on the sleeves. Whatever it is, so long as the goofy looking dolphin on the side is re-imagined I will be happy.
As I look around my room here at PhinPhanatic central I see quite a few items that have the Dolphins logo on it. And I don’t have a problem running out and buying replacements when the logo changes.
Later we can talk about my thoughts on the “fight song”.
Author’s note: This article is NOT intended to indicate a desire to overhaul the Miami Dolphins logo. I have the old logo tattooed on my arm. My opinion is only that we should completely DROP the cartoon version that has been in Miami since Jimmy Johnson in 2009 and dress up the old version to make it a modern look without going into some freakish cartoon. As for the uniforms. I have no issue with the current uniforms outside of the navy blue trim which I do not like and the current style of the Dolphins logo as mentioned.