What the heck is happening at New Era?
At this point I’m convinced New Era is just doing bad hats on purpose. After their disastrous launch of MLB hats this spring we now have the official 2025 NFL Draft hats, and I swear to god these actually look like bootlegs you’d find at a flea market — except they’re $50 each.
Every team has the leaf design on the brim, and a small brass pin that’s supposed to represent something iconic about the team. In the case of the Packers it’s the bikes from training camp — which is kind of neat. Then you see the Falcons, which is a brass peach butt.
If you don’t zoom in this kind of just looks like a turd. To make matters worse there are some franchises they just clearly didn’t have any ideas on how to represent the city or make it iconic. The Panthers, Bills, Buccaneers, and Vikings just get a variant of their logo — but at least it isn’t the Raiders, whose draft hat has a pin of the stadium.
Since all these hats are absolutely godawful there’s no point trying to separate the good from the bad, so let’s rank these on the quality of their pins and put them into different tiers.
Actually clever
- Kansas City Chiefs: Decibel meter
- Green Bay Packers: Bike
- Washington Commanders: Hog
- New Orleans Saints: Mardi Gras parasol
- San Francisco 49ers: Fog horn
- Indianapolis Colts: Anvil
Flag tier
- Chicago Bears: Chicago flag
- Arizona Cardinals: Arizona flag
I only know one thing about this city
- Philadelphia Eagles: Liberty Bell
- Baltimore Ravens: Crab
- Cleveland Browns: Electric guitar
- Tennessee Titans: Acoustic guitar
- Denver Broncos: Rocky Mountains
- Detroit Lions: Car wheel
- Miami Dolphins: Palm tree
- New England Patriots: Lighthouse
- New York Giants: Subway car
- Pittsburgh Steelers: Bridge
- Jacksonville Jaguars: Bridge
WTF tier
- Las Vegas Raiders: Their own stadium
- Houston Texans: H-Town Made
- New York Giants: Subway car
- New York Jets: Olympic torch (?)
- Seattle Seahawks: 12th man bigfoot
- Los Angeles Rams: Bolero jacket
- Cincinnati Bengals: Nobody on staff knows what this is
Logoception tier
- Carolina Panthers: Panther
- Buffalo Bills: Bill
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Skull
- Dallas Cowboys: Star on top of America
- Minnesota Vikings: Vikings helmet
Peach butt tier
- Atlanta Falcons: Peach butt
Imagine working for years to make it to the NFL. You finally get drafted and then walk across the stage and be forced to put one of these on. That’s cruel and unusual punishment.
