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Over the years some teams have become part of NFL lore, standing out from the crowd thanks to stellar offenses or defenses, and sometimes a combination of both. Many of the very best teams and units have received the ultimate accolade of a nickname which has resonated through the decades. We have picked out the ten best team nicknames, and we explain just what these celebrated squads did to earn their monikers.
Check out the list and see if you agree with our choices!
The Iron Curtain was the imaginary barrier between Western and Eastern Europe, but The Steel Curtain playing in black and gold was all too real, as visiting offenses soon discovered. The 1970’s Steeler defense featured iconic names like Mean Joe Greene, Jack Lambert and Jack Ham, and they helped their team to claim the Lombardi Trophy four times in six years. The Steel Curtain originated from a fan who called into a local radio station in 1972, but came to particularly be associated with the fierce D which put fear into the hearts of opposing quarterbacks between 1974 and 1979.
The name ‘Monsters of the Midway’ was first used to describe the dominant University of Chicago football team way back in the early 1900s. The Midway of the name comes from the Midway Plaisance park next to the college buildings – the monsters part is self-explanatory! The 1940s Bears team under George Halas took on the moniker as they won multiple championships. The name would be revived when the Bears won the Super Bowl in 1985 in a team featuring hard-hitting defenders like Mike Singletary, Richard Dent and Dan Hampton.
The ‘Purple People Eaters’ was a novelty song from the 1950s, and safe to say it was a lot less scary than the Vikings defensive line that adopted the same name. From the late 1960s into the 70s Minnesota’s defense became known for their aggressiveness and relentless pursuit of whoever had the ball on the other side of the line. Some of the standouts in that D-line included Alan Page, Carl Eller, Jim Marshall and Gary Larsen, and their motto “meet at the quarterback” tells you all you need to know about their intentions on the field.
The Dallas Cowboys are of course ‘America’s Team’ despite the fact they are also the team that many around the country love to hate. NFL Films producer Bob Ryan first came up with the name for the Cowboys while he was creating the 1978 highlight package for the team. In his opening narration he said: “They appear on television so often that their faces are as familiar to the public as presidents and movie stars. They are the Dallas Cowboys, ‘America’s Team”. The Cowboys were the one team to have people cheering for them in every stadium they visited, and to this day there are sizeable Cowboy fanbases in ever city in the land.
The Legion of Boom was the name bestowed upon the dominant Seattle Seahawks secondary of the 2010s. This unit hit hard and let you know all about it afterwards, led by Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas and Byron Maxwell. The nickname was coined in 2012 by local radio host Brian Nemhauser and quickly caught on as a descriptor of this dominant defense. Sherman, Thomas and Chancellor picked up a total of 15 Pro Bowl awards between them and no secondary unit has ever had quite the impact of these ‘Hawks.
We have talked a lot about defenses on this list, but the St Louis Rams’ ‘Greatest Show on Turf’ was all about the offense. Led by Kurt Warner as part of his journey from grocery store stocker to Hall of Famer, the Rams revolutionized the way coaches thought about offensive play in the NFL. Complemented by running back Marshall Falk, wide receivers Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt and with left tackle Orlando Pace protecting the QB, nobody could stop these Rams on their way to victory in Super Bowl XXXIV.
Okay that’s it for offensive teams – seems like all the best team nicknames go to the guys on the other side of the ball! A case in point is the ‘Big Blue Wrecking Crew’ from New York. Head Coach Bill Parcells and one Bill Belichick as DC instilled an aggressive mindset in this team, powering them to Super Bowl wins in 1986 and 1990. The fact that they had Lawrence Taylor on the roster certainly helped, as he single-handedly changed the way people thought about the pass rush.
The legendary unbeaten Dolphins of the 1972 season were so good that they deserved a nickname – but what do you call a defensive unit with no outstanding stars? ‘The No-Name Defense’ of course, lacking household names but combining to do something which no other team has managed in over 50 years of trying. Famously the remaining ‘Fins crack open champagne and cigars to celebrate the latest pretender losing their ‘0’ every year, and this No-Name D continues to hold the record for having the only perfect season in the history of the NFL.
Killer B’s is a pretty cool sounding nickname, even if the reason for its adoption is a little prosaic. The ‘B’s in question are defensive players whose name begin with the letter B: Baumhower, Bokamper, Brudzinski and so on. The Dolphins would go on to claim Super Bowl XVII in ’82, allowing the fewest points in the NFL that season along the way.
The Falcons’ aggressive defense set an NFL record for the fewest points allowed in a 14-game season, when just 129 points were scored against them all year. Sadly for Atlanta, their offense couldn’t match that high-powered D and they finished the season with a 7-7 record. Defensive coach Jerry Glanville made his name in Atlanta that year with a super-aggressive defense which went for the quarterback just about every snap, a unique concept in its day. As for the ‘grits’ part of the name, well anyone living down Georgia direction can tell you all about that favorite Southern dish.
Ross has been writing about sports for over a decade, spcecializing in the NFL, soccer and boxing. His written work has appeared on a number of online publications over that time.