The Atlanta Falcons on Wednesday showed off a retro team symbol on their social media platforms, which bore an uncomfortable resemblance to a World War II-era German military banner.
Red, white and black stripes adorned the familiar Falcons logo on the team’s Instagram and X accounts
It was called “New PFP” on X, shorthand for “new profile picture.”
A team representative, reached late Thursday afternoon, said the Falcons do not have a “new logo” and declined any further comment.
The Reichskriegsflagge-like imagery triggered a wave of taste-challenged World War II-themed comments and jokes to the Falcons social media pages.
The artwork appeared to be an ill-advised effort to honor the expansion 1966 Atlanta Falcons.
The Dirty Birds next take the field on Sunday, welcoming the San Francisco 49ers to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in an old school NFC West showdown that Atlanta is set to wear throwback threads.
“Absolutely there was no ill intent and I can’t imagine in a million years the Atlanta Falcons would do something like that (seek Nazi alignment),” sports logo historian Chris Creamer told NBC News on Thursday.
“It’s throwback weekend for the team, and the social media team just wanted to dress up like the players were going to, and it’s a very common thing that social media accounts do across all sports. If a team’s wearing a throwback uniform, usually their profile photo will be updated to match that.”
Creamer didn’t fault the Falcons for posting the image originally, but wondered if the team could’ve avoided some of the blowback.
“I think if I was in the room with the Falcons, honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed it (any possible offensive Nazi connection) when I hit send,” he said.
“But I would have, once the replies started coming in as fast as they were coming in and it spiraled out of control, at that point they could have taken it down and tried a different one. At this point it just sort of seems kind of stubborn to keep it up.”