This Sunday millions of people will be huddled around their TV’s watching the biggest sports event in the world (if you exclude every other country that isn’t America).

This NFL season has been full of questions from fans like “will the lions take it all the way to the Super Bowl” and “Does Patrick Mahomes have psychic powers or is he just bribing the refs the old fashioned way”.

Despite all this I have yet to see anyone ask the most important question: how easy would it be for an 8th grader to draw the Vikings logo in a notebook?

Well fear no longer trusty sports fans, because I have devised a test to judge every logo in the NFL based on this specific criteria. This is because sports teams are like cults, you need to hook them in while they’re young. If you want a kid to grow up and continue to spend money on your sports franchise you have to make sure they can doodle your logo in their notebook instead of learning the pythagorean theorem.

That’s why I developed the only legitimate test for judging any logo for a major sports team: The Notebook Test. In order to get a good grade on this test you need to have a logo that a middle schooler can and would want to draw in their notebook. That means it has to look cool enough for a young boy and be simple enough to draw over and over.

So I, a grown adult with both limited sports knowledge and art skills, decided to take charge and drew every single logo in the NFC division to the best of my abilities. In order to make it as true to the original premise I set some basic boundaries for this test. First, no tracing. Second, no rulers. You wouldn’t want Mrs. Horowitz to ask why you have ruler out while you’re supposed to be taking notes on “To kill a Mockingbird”. I also tried to make them as small as I could, but quickly found that to be difficult for some of the logos due to how intricate they were. 

Now at this point you might be questioning my artistic prowess. To that I say, check this out.

Still not good enough for you? Well then feast your eyes on this!

Now that you’re thoroughly convinced that I’m a modern day Picasso, let’s get doodling. Here are my rankings for all the teams in the NFL’s NFC.

The Arizona Cardinals – A tier

I surprisingly like this one quite a bit. My initial thought was “that’s just a bird”, but after drawing it and reflecting on it, this is quite a good logo. I could imagine myself in middle school doodling this over and over in my notebook. I also think I could’ve found this kind of cool, because it’s not just a bird, it’s an angry bird and that immediately makes it ten times cooler. It’s just a nice simple logo that’s hard to have a problem with. 

The Atlanta Falcons – B tier

This one surprised me in the complete opposite way. I thought this was an easy S tier but after drawing and thinking about it, this is a lot harder to draw than I originally thought. It easily passes the coolness test, but I feel like if I were to draw this during class I would just get frustrated and start drawing something else, or heaven forbid, actually pay attention in class. It gets a B because it really is just such an amazing design it’s just a bit too intricate with a lot of thin lines and spacing.

The Carolina Panthers – C tier

I feel like this drawing deserves more of an explanation than the actual rank itself, but if I did that for all the doodles that looked like this half the article would just be full length apology letters to half the teams in the NFL, so I’m just going to say sorry and move on. Panthers are cool, but this logo is way too hard to draw. I could see a kid version of myself drawing an abridged version of this logo, but nothing resembling the actual one. It’s too complicated and the mouth is weird.

The Chicago Bears – D tier

You can give me some slack for this one right? It’s just weirdly detailed and just looks old fashioned. I understand what they are going for, and I would hate for them to go the Rams route, which I’ll get to later, but the logo just looks ugly. On top of which I think bears are more cute than cool, but that might just be a me thing.

The Dallas Cowboys – D tier

I’ll be the first person to admit that this drawing is embarrassing, but despite that this logo is just lame. I get what they were going for, but the only thing keeping this from being an F tier is the fact that there is some symbolism going on. Otherwise that’s just a star. You can draw it pretty easily (if you’re not me), but it’s just so lazy. On top of that, the color scheme is just so overused in the NFL. Seattle, Tennessee, New England, and Indianapolis all have similar base colors and they all do it better.

The Detroit Lions – B tier

This, like the Atlanta Falcons, surprised me on how low it is. I went into this project thinking this was the poster child for quality logos, but it has the same problems as a lot of the other logos. It’s just too much. It passes the coolness check with flying colors, but good luck drawing this without a reference. 

The Green Bay Packers – F tier

That’s just a G.

The Los Angeles Rams – F tier 

To be frank I hate what this logo stands for. This genuinely might be my least favorite logo in the entire league. The reason for this hot blooded hatred is because of what they took away from us. The logo they had before this was perfect. It was simple, represented the team name, and I think it looked cool. What we have now is a pompous display of pride and arrogance. It’s just another team from LA slapping their initials on more merchandise and calling it a day. This logo is the manifestation of Sodom and Gomorrah. Its existence is a sin. Rest in peace little ram, I’ll always remember you.

The Minnesota Vikings – B tier

This is higher than I thought it would be, partially because the drawing turned out a lot better than I anticipated. There was no way it was going to get lower than a C because vikings are awesome, I thought it was initially going to stay a C tier after I drew it. It still is a bit too detailed for me to comfortably give it an A. The only reason it turned out this good is because I had a reference. Despite that I feel like a middle schooler could figure it out eventually.

The New Orleans Saints – C tier 

Another embarrassing drawing that took me way too long to do, but I think the logo is fine enough. It’s just a basic symbol with a simple color scheme. I could see a younger version of myself doodling this over and over, but only ever out of sheer boredom. The logo works, and that’s really all there is to say.

The New York Giants – D tier

That’s just an N and a Y. 

The Philadelphia Eagles – C tier

I know the mouth is way too wide and a little goofy looking, but that has no bearing on my rank. This was a close pick for me, but I ultimately put it in C tier because there are just too many little details that are too hard to capture in a quick doodle or drawing. It is a cool logo, and I could justify moving it up a peg to B, but for now it is what it is.

The San Francisco 49ers – F tier

That’s just two letters and a circle. I drew this one bad out of spite. It could have been a gold nugget or something, but no.

The Seattle Seahawks – C tier

I’m running out of things to say at this point. Take everything I said for the Eagles and apply it to the seahawks. It’s just sort of basic in the grand scheme of things. Not terrible, not great, overall forgettable.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers – S tier

Now this is what I’m talking about. I intentionally drew this one small and as a doodle to prove that it can be done. This logo checks all the boxes. It’s cool, it is representative of the name and the region that they are from, and it’s simple enough while retaining a certain level of charm. Yes the skull on the original logo is a lot more intricate, but I don’t think that matters, because you can get the same thing across with a simple 2D skull. To me this logo borders on perfection. I mean the skull and crossbones has a football in the middle. How can you beat that? This logo just makes me so happy. It’s like a grade schooler designed it, and that’s why I find it so endearing. 

The Washington Commanders – F tier

Well it’s last and it’s definitely one of the least. That’s just a W and it’s weirdly hard to draw. Plus they didn’t change their racist name and logo until 2022. You had decades to come up with an alternate brand, and this is what you put out. Absolutely embarrassing. This ties the Rams for the worst logo in the league.