Atlanta Falcons mocked after throwback logo draws comparisons with Nazi Germany

The Atlanta Falcons were met with a flood of jokes and memes on social media on Thursday after the team posted a throwback logo that drew comparisons to Nazi Germany, ahead of their game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

The image, shared on the Falcons’ social channels, features the franchise’s older falcon emblem from the 1960s and 1970s set against red, white and black stripes. The “throwback” design is being used in the run-up to Atlanta’s game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. The Falcons’ post on X had attracted more than 26m views since being published early Thursday, and the team did not immediately comment on the backlash.

Users on social platforms reacted rapidly, with many saying the striped background and colour scheme resembled the iconography of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party and posting a stream of mocking responses under the team’s update.

One user wrote: “I must say, I was not expecting to wake up this morning to see that the Atlanta Falcons are preparing to invade Poland.” Another invoked Atlanta’s 2017 Super Bowl loss to New England, commenting: “Falcons were up 28-3 at Dunkirk.”

Other posts mixed football references with Second World War language: “Falcons leading the league in blitzkrieg,” one user joked, while another wrote: “I give this a nein/10.” One commenter called the team the “28-3rd Reich”, linking the Nazi reference to the Super Bowl collapse, and another wrote: “Now they just need to hire Frank Reich and it’ll be complete,” referring to the former NFL head coach.

Additional responses included: after this weekend’s home game against San Francisco, the Falcons had “road games in Dunkirk, Normandy, and Stalingrad”; suggestions to change the NFL’s “End Racism” end-zone slogan to “Start Racism”; and a proposed billing for Sunday’s matchup as “49ers vs 39ers.” Several users also labelled the team the “Bird Reich.”

The throwback design will be used in promotions ahead of Atlanta’s game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.