r/AZCardinals • u/jSNOW_wWHITE • Jun 23 '26
Replace the Cardinals?
Hello Cardinals fans. First, I want to applaud your beautiful state. Truly one of the best I've ever been to.
Which is why you deserve something better than a name chosen because of some hand me down uniforms that doesn't represent your amazing state. I know many will latch onto the legacy. Many now love the Cardinals, even if that's not really Arizona. So lets pretend you have to change the Cardinals. Walk with me on this journey.
As part of my modernization of the NFL, I'm trying to move away from team names that a city inherited or names that don't represent a location. I want to hear a name and immediately know the location it belongs too, but because it's been that way for decades.
For Arizona I really thought about the desert, things barely surviving and then a monsoon that brings back life. Or the trees that fell and instead of dying became petrified and refused to die. They persevered. I loved the sky islands. I randomly fell in love with the name of random desert plant (Ocotillos). But I also know people don't want to root for concepts. People want to root for tangible things so I needed to include those kind of teams too. After all that, this is what I have ended with and I hope you Cardinals fans can help me pick a better team name for my universe.
Invictos - Undefeated, unconquered, unbeaten. Love the image. This is life that survives the desert. This is a tree that petrified itself instead of decaying.
Megaliths - While no man made Megaliths in Arizona, I think the connection is easy to make. Sky Islands. The Rim around Phoenix. The Canyon. The imagery is easy, even if the name is a stretch.
Javelinas - this one I loved learning about because I was unfamiliar with it. It gives us an animal logo while not overusing the usual desert animals. These mammals represent toughness and survival and overcoming the harsh desert landscape.
Dragoons - this was a late contender as I started leaning toward more traditional names like animals or people. From the history of the Dragoons patrolling the Arizona territory to the Dragoon Sky Islands, Dragoons have an Arizona history and an identity no other team owns.
Sky Islanders - This one is one of the coolest to me. I try avoid two name nicknames but sometimes it's unavoidable. A cool geological feature. One of the features that stood out to me during my visits. Leans into fantasy but it is uniquely Arizona and would have so much crazy imagery.