The NFL’s “script writers” are (allegedly) at it again — this time on the grandest stage of all: Super Bowl LIX.
When the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles square off Sunday, it’ll mark the fourth straight season in which the colors of the Super Bowl logo happens to match at least one of the teams playing.
It all started with Super Bowl LVI, when the orange and yellow hues conveniently reflected the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams. The following year, for Super Bowl LVII, the logo’s green and red tones perfectly aligned with the Eagles and Chiefs. Then came Super Bowl LVIII, featuring purple and red, and the whole conspiracy nearly fell apart when the Baltimore Ravens lost to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game. But hey, the San Francisco 49ers still made it, so that has to count for something, right?
And just when it seemed the NFL had moved on from the alleged subliminal messaging, this year continued the trend with a New Orleans’ twist.
This year’s logo was designed by local artist Tahj Williams, also known as Queen Tahj — a title honoring her role as queen of her Black Masking Indian tribe.
Rather than leaning on familiar Big Easy imagery such as harlequin masks and jazz instruments, Williams crafted something deeply rooted in tradition. She created an intricately beaded Mardi Gras Indian patch, primarily featuring red and green hues. The design is a nod to the historic Black Indian masking tradition, a cultural legacy born from the bonds between African and Native American communities in New Orleans.
“The masking tradition came about because African Americans weren’t allowed to participate in the mainstream Mardi Gras celebrations on St. Charles,” Williams said.
So, whether you believe in the NFL’s color-coded crystal ball or not, one thing’s for sure: This year’s Super Bowl logo isn’t just a coincidence — it’s a tribute.
While the discussions of whether it’s a coincidence or conspiracy continue, here’s how we got here:
From 1967’s Super Bowl II until 2009’s Super Bowl XLIV, the game’s logo included various colors, fonts and designs. In its earliest days, red, white and blue dominated — until the early 1990s. Super Bowls IV, VI XV and XVI are some of the biggest outliers to this, with their bold gold lettering standing out from the bunch.
“The first 10 Super Bowls didn’t have formalized logos because there was really not a need for it. There was not a lot of merchandise being sold with the logos. They weren’t featured on the field at all,” Todd Radom, designer and sports branding expert, told ESPN. “The game evolved into the biggest spectacle in American sports, probably sometime in the mid-70s, so the marketing and selling of the game really became far more detailed and sophisticated.”
Later on, elements of the host city were also incorporated, such as in Super XXI (1987), which was played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, and included the venue’s signature flower in its art.
“The NFL realized there was an opportunity to really monetize Super Bowl merchandise in the early 1990s. By the time Super Bowl XXVIII (1994) came around, they really leaned into designs that would be most appealing to local fans,” Chris Creamer, founder of SportsLogos.net, told ESPN. “[Local fans] were most likely to attend the game and just, in general, be interested in that year’s Super Bowl merchandise.”
The game was played at the Georgia Dome and featured a logo that paid homage to the host state’s official fruit.
“The peach featured in the Super Bowl XXVIII logo is a perfect example [of merchandise appealing to local fans]. Looking back you’ll always know where that game was played, where you wouldn’t have a clue with most of the games before it. Of this era, the peach logo stands out as well as the Mardi Gras-influenced logo for Super Bowl XXXI (1997) and the lighthouse of San Diego’s Super Bowl XXXVII (2003).”
According to Radom, who designed the logo of Super Bowl XXXVIII (2004) in Houston, the sense of locality was a refreshing change.
“The logos were always very expressive and deeply rooted into the location of the game,” Radom said. “They really represented these individual moments in time that got consigned to history once the game was over. They looked, in a very refreshing way, like the moment that they were played.”
This trend popped up late as 2005, when the host city Jacksonville, Florida, used its Main Street Bridge in the background.
Starting with Super Bowl XLV in 2011, the Lombardi Trophy became a prominent part of the logo, and silver was the only color featured until gold was incorporated for Super Bowl 50 (2016). As a nod to where the game was played, a depiction of the venue was included in the designs, but potentially at the cost of creativity.
“When the logo got standardized in 2011, the first several years were all monochromatic. And if we’re going to call the NFL the ‘no fun league,’ these logos were no fun at all and broke sharply from tradition,” Radom said.
“The Lombardi Trophy is a very recognizable asset. If you’re the NFL, it is the ultimate prize, but it’s very limiting and when you combine it with the need for Roman numerals, it certainly sets you up to really be challenged to make things look effective.”
Silver continued to be the primary hue from Super Bowl LI in 2016 through Super Bowl LIV in 2019, but this time it was paired with two accent colors that changed each year.
In 2022, the design was tweaked again, this time through the aforementioned prophetic hues of the Roman numerals in Super Bowl LVI and LVII. In reality, the shades of the numerals recognize their host cities: first, with palm trees as a nod to Los Angeles in 2022 and then with a desert-like illustration for Arizona in 2023.
In last year’s logo, outlines of notable casinos are featured along with the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign. It also bears a purple and reddish gradient with gold outlines.
Radom estimated that the logo was completed roughly 18 months to two years ahead of the Super Bowl.
If the league sticks to its recent trend, the 2026 logo — along with any potential team color coincidences — should be revealed the Monday after the Super Bowl.
