1969 Branding

1969 Branding

Introducing the…MINNESOTA SERPENTS
Kris Matheson was grinning ear-to-ear during the press conference to reveal the branding of his team. He first announced that the team would be named after the state prior to the conference by calling it the “Minnesota NAAF Reveal Press Conference”. Matheson first touched on the decision to go with a state name, stating that the decision was 1: to differentiate itself from the other Minneapolis team in the Minneapolis Black Bears, but 2: to represent both of the twin cities and the state as a whole. 

Matheson carried on with the reveal of the mascot. The Serpents. When Matheson was growing up, his grandpa, who was originally from Norway, told him about the Old Norse stories and mythology. Matheson was enamoured by the stories and, of course, was a big fan of Thor. When deciding on the team name, he wanted to pull from those old stories. He did wish that he could have called the team the Thunder after Thor, but of course, that was already taken. He had some other choices like Giants (Jötunn) or Ravens (like Odin’s Ravens), but he ultimately settled on one of the most feared beings in the mythos, the Serpent, specifically Jörmungandr (or the Midgard Serpent). Matheson loved the mascot, it was fierce and cool, as well as still having a connection to Thor, as the Norse God is prophesied to face Jörmungandr during the Norse Apocalypse, Ragnarök. 

Next, Matheson revealed the team’s logos. Here the team continues the Norse theme, taking inspiration from Norse artwork. The primary logo is a Viking shield with a stylized “M” placed on it in Blue, then a depiction of Jörmungandr is painted in green and white over top, making up the shape of an “S”. The serpent also features a classic Norse braid design that is featured in their artwork. The team also has an alternate logo featuring just the head of Jörmungandr. Silver is added to the scheme as the metal on the outside of the shield. 

The logo was quite well received, however, the jerseys left a lot to be desired. The home uniform would be blue with a unique set of stripes. With 4 white stripes encompassing a stripe of each of the team’s colours. However, the Green stripe is the thickest of the stripes. Matheson pointed out that he wanted the striping to be completely different than any other team before. He accomplished it, however with criticism, especially about the fact that silver is only used in that one single stripe on the uniform. The pants would be white with a green stripe, and the socks simply all green. The road is pretty much the same as the home with just the blue base and white numbers colour swapped. The helmet was probably the best element, as the secondary Jörmungandr logo is used. 

Regardless of what others thought, Matheson was still very happy to have his team be brought to life.

On top of the branding reveal, Matheson also revealed the name of the team’s new stadium. While the original name idea had been simply Minnesota Football Stadium, Matheson came through with a better name of Midgard Stadium. Once again, he kept going with the Norse theme, as Midgard is the name of Earth within Norse Mythology. It also connects to serpents with Jörmungandr being the Midgard Serpent who is wrapped around the planet. Midgard Stadium will be about average size for NAAF stadiums, housing 50,230 seats. 

LONG ISLAND RAIDERS CELEBRATE 50 YEARS
The original Long Island Raiders were founded in 1919, as members of the NYCFL. 50 years later, that original team did not exist anymore. After the 1951 NYFL season (the league was renamed in the 1940s), the Raiders were folded as a part of the NYFL’s merger with the ACFL. In 1954, Long Island saw the return of football in the form of the relocated Hartford Hawks. After one season as the Long Island Hawks, the Raiders would return with Owner Wayne Tillman changing the name after just one season. Since then, the team has become a successful team in the NAAF with 2 McCallister Cup titles. 

This season, to mark the 50-year anniversary of the team’s founding, the Raiders made some changes to their uniforms. The first is simply the addition of a “LI50” patch on the front of their jerseys, following in the footsteps of several other teams that have celebrated their history. 

However, the Raiders took it a step further and became just the second team to add a 3rd/Alternate jersey to their mix. While Tillman was a little worried that he may not be able to add the design after Toronto dropped their Hamilton Steelers alts last season, there were no issues from the league and they moved forward with the alternate option. This uniform is a throwback to the Raiders’ look from the 1951 season. The jersey is the team’s usual shade of dark green, which had only become the team’s colour after an attempt at black had ended up discoloured back when they first began to play in 1919. The uniform as a whole is as close as they could get to recreating the 50s jerseys while still following the jersey guidelines in the NAAF. Also to note, Maroon is completely removed as that was only added to the colour scheme following the team’s rebrand from the Long Island Hawks in 1955. 

With the addition of a 3rd jersey, which featured a new helmet, jersey, pants, and socks, the team decided to get rid of their secondary green pants and white socks from the white jersey and replace them with the maroon socks from the home jersey and the white pants from the alternate.