NFL Logo Rankings: #26 Bills and #25 Bengals

Doubling it up today. As I continue the countdown today, I begin with #26 the Buffalo Bills. The Bills have been using the leaping buffalo since 1974. For that time period, this logo was sleek, energetic and forward thinking. It first debuted on the helmet on white, but they moved to a red helmet to separate themselves from the rest of the division. At the time the Patriots, Jets, Colts, and Dolphins had white helmets, and for good reason. White helmets look sweet, so I understand them changing. Plus when you line up against divisional teams twice a year, it's not a bad thing to want to look different and separate yourself from the opponents. However, the Bills broke out the throwbacks. And good lord are they great. Which brings me to the logo. Like the Lions, seeing just that silhouette of that buffalo on the helmet reminds me how the simplest logos can say a lot. There is no guessing. No flare or fireworks. It says Buffalo. And since this team is associated more with it's city name than it's nickname, why not embrace it? A buffalo for Buffalo. It's perfect. And it's time to move past the mess they've made of their current uniforms and the 4 straight Super Bowl losses. Bring back the lone buffalo!

Keep the white helmet or...

Keep the red. It's a win, win.

Next we have #25 the Bengals.

The Bengals. Great helmet, car wreck uniforms, dumb logo. The "B" just doesn't work. It looks too complicated and clunky. It's actually not a very good "B". I sort of looks like a "B". Kind of. 

This is an easy fix. They have a great Bengal head they use. Just stick with that and leave the cartoon letters alone.

Which, while I'm thinking about it. The AFC North is such a weird conference for logos and uniforms. I just ranked 3 of the 4 teams in the bottom 10, leaving only the Steelers to be ranked. The 3 I have ranked already, Ravens, Browns, Bengals, are all weirdly linked. It's like the Kevin Bacon game:

The AFC North has 2 teams with a ton of history (Steelers, Browns). The Browns have history but their team was moved to Baltimore. Baltimore used to be the Browns but they share the history of the Colts since Johnny U played there (BTW be sure to catch the ESPN 30 for 30 film about the Colts Marching Band. It's excellent). So you have 2 teams that have broken histories, both being new teams one way or the other. The Browns and Bengals used to be owned by the same owner, Paul Brown and the Bengals we're modeled, look wise. The Browns were named after him but Cincy's stadium is named after him. The Browns have never won a Super Bowl, but the Ravens did. Baltimore has 2 SB wins but 2 different teams did it (Colts, Ravens). No wonder the Steelers are usually the best team in this division.

Then the AFC North has  4 different helmets styles: Browns no helmet logo, Steelers with 1 helmet logo, Ravens with the standard 2 helmet logos, and the Bengals have an all over design. 

It's a mess.