Block & Tackle is John Teti’s column about pro football and related sundries.
“How can I efficiently, adorably express the identity of my favorite football team in a text message?” It’s a question that has vexed fans for decades, even in the ’70s, when there was no such thing as text messages. But now there is such a thing, and moreover, there are emoji, the pictographic icons that make texting fun.
The visual vocabulary of emoji is vast, with miniature images that range from an electric train to a slightly different electric train. However, the emoji library does not include NFL team logos, which hampers pictorial football messaging. Until now. Block & Tackle has constructed an unquestionably correct chart of emoji to represent each team in the league, and by “chart” I mean “thing I made in Apple Notes during a terrible Monday Night Football game.” It’s presented below for your edification and reference.