Big Red

The mascot arrived first, and only much later got the name to match: called Big Red.

It started in Chicago in 1898 as the Morgan Athletic Club, an amateur outfit that turned professional and, in 1920, signed on as a charter member of the league that became the NFL — making it the oldest continuously operating professional football franchise in the country. It played as the Chicago Cardinals for four decades, moved to St. Louis in 1960, and Phoenix took the franchise in 1988, and the current name, Arizona Cardinals, was settled in 1994.

It reopened only partway in 2008, when the Cardinals won the NFC and reached Super Bowl XLIII behind Kurt Warner, then lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 23–27. Larry Fitzgerald played through that run and stayed another decade beyond it, long enough to become the name most associated with the franchise's modern years.