Although the red home jerseys have already leaked, the Atlanta Falcons will officially unveil new uniforms at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday.
With that, we’ve decided to take a look at the franchise’s logo and uniform history, which dates back to their founding in 1966, when a local school teacher helped choose their nickname as part of a contest, saying, “the falcon is proud and dignified, with great courage and fight. It never drops its prey. It is deadly and has a great sporting tradition.”
Atlanta’s inaugural uniforms featured red helmets with their original logo on the sides, as well as a stripe down the center that borrowed its colors from in-state schools Georgia and Georgia Tech. They were paired with black or white jerseys with the same logo on the sleeves, white pants with a traditional striping pattern down the sides and black socks with stripes that matched the pants.
That look lasted just one season, as the Falcons replaced the logo on the sleeves with stripes and TV numbers. They then scrapped their black home jerseys and matching socks for red jerseys and socks in 1971, and that remained their primary home design until 1978, when they introduced silver pants, as well as silver numbers and stripes on their red home jerseys.
Atlanta also switched from primarily black numbers to red numbers on its white road uniforms, a detailed that remained as they switched from white to black facemasks in 1984 and until a full uniform redesign in 1990, when the Falcons introduced the first black helmet in franchise history.
The black helmets featured their original logo on the sides, while their new black home jerseys favored their inaugural design with white block numbers outlined in red and their original logo on the sleeves. But rather than white pants, the Falcons continued to wear gray pants, flipping the stripes to make black more prominent than red.
Atlanta’s road jerseys changed at this time, as well, as the franchise wore red numbers for the first two games of the 1990 season before adopting black numbers, though red numbers returned in 1997, the season before the Falcons made a run to Super Bowl XXXIII, where they lost to the Denver Broncos while wearing their home uniforms.
The Falcons later revealed a modern uniform design in 2003 alongside an updated version of their logo, adding red streaks to the body and wings and a silver outline. It was also tilted, giving it a more menacing look than the previous version, which looked mid-flight rather than as if it were striking its prey.
The logo appeared on the black helmets, as well as the sleeves of the black home, white road and red alternate jerseys, which had a unique sleeve design and piping down the sides of the jerseys that carried over to the matching white and black pants options. Atlanta then switched the designation of the red and black jerseys after just one season.
The Falcons added 1966 throwback uniforms to the rotation in 2009, but that was scrapped when the NFL implemented its one-helmet rule in 2013. They were then partially revived in 2016, blending eras by pairing their standard black lids and throwback decals with the 1966 jerseys, pants and socks.
Atlanta wore red Color Rush uniforms – which are nearly identical to the red jerseys the franchise will unveil on Thursday, albeit with inverted numbers – for a single game during the 2017 season. The Falcons then underwent a full redesign in 2020, unveiling new black home, white road and red-to-black gradient alternate uniforms.
The uniforms featured an “ATL” wordmark across the chest, custom number font and red side panels that mimicked the design of their logo. They also switched to a satin black finish on their helmets with a silver chrome facemask and unveiled a red pants option, though they were never worn.
The gradient uniform was scrapped after the 2022 season, which is when the Falcons reintroduced their red throwback helmets, as the league relaxed its uniform rules and allowed teams to wear a second shell. That paved the way for them to be worn three times every season since.
Now that the stage has been set, we’re just hours away from the Falcons unveiling their new uniforms. Stay tuned to SportsLogos.Net for full coverage, including our new reaction piece from myself, founder Chris Creamer and fellow contributor Glenn Cook.
Photos courtesy of @AtlantaFalcons on X/Twitter.
