A TikTok user jokingly recreated the NFL logo, and the league embraced it by mocking her back
- TikTok user Emily Zugay has jokingly recreated logos of major brands, including the Detroit Lions.
- With the NFL logo, she made it "more patriotic" with "president of the football," Peyton Manning.
- The NFL played along on TikTok, recreating her profile picture to include troll hair and a chipmunk.
Emily Zugay has gone viral on TikTok in recent days for recreating the logos of major companies in bizarre, satirical fashion.
Her hilarious redesigns have included the likes of Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, NASA, The Washington Post, Tinder, and even TikTok itself. Many of the brands have interacted with Zugay through their official social media channels - including the Detroit Lions, or "Detriot Lines," as Zugay jokingly referred to the NFL franchise.
The Lions' rebrand prompted the NFL to seek out its own freshened logo from Zugay, who chose to include the league in her next video.
In her TikTok posted Wednesday, Zugay begins by explaining that the NFL - which she pronounces "niffel" - "reached out to me."
"They do sports like football and such," she clarified for those who may not be familiar with the most popular sports league in the United States.
Zugay then shared that she thinks the NFL's logo "is very boring" and that she doesn't "appreciate that pointy part" at the bottom of its crest. After that, she unveils her "much more patriotic" redesign, which features a red, white, and blue flag with a football overlay that looks fresh out of Microsoft Paint. "NFL" is written across the football in a slanted font, and a photo of retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning is inexplicably included as well.
"I'm pretty sure he's the president of the football in America," Zugay explains while pointing at the former Denver Bronco.
The league was quickly receptive to Zugay's new and improved logo, commenting on the TikTok that they were "sending to the commissioner" right now. The NFL swapped out its profile picture to reflect the redesign, then its social team went a step further and decided to offer Zugay a "gift in return."
The NFL posted a TikTok Wednesday evening thanking Zugay for her "beautiful new logo for the niffel." A person who is likely a member of league's social media team then explained that "because we are the niffel, we also wanted to lend our resources to Emily."
"Just like Emily, I have a passion for graphic design and I thought her profile picture could use some spicing up," they said. "Emily, you look good, but I think you can look better."
The TikTok then pans to a photo of Zugay wearing sunglasses and boasting a very lackluster expression. The NFL gave her troll hair, which the social media manager called "self explanatory," and a nametag with Zugay's first name misspelled.
They also added ears of corn to signify that Zugay is from the Midwest. If you look closely, mini photos of Manning are peeking their heads out from behind the vegetables.
Perhaps the most notable part of the NFL's redesign of Zugay's profile picture is the tiny chipmunk featured in the bottom right corner. The fuzzy creature, which they refer to as "Tony," is a callback to a TikTok Zugay posted in January about a chipmunk who visited her yard. She named him Tony.
"Upon my research I also saw Tony here," the NFL TikTok user said, pausing to kiss Tony's nose. "I thought he would be a great throwback touch."
Zugay was thrilled with the advancement, commenting that both she "and Tony approve" of the new logo. She also switched her profile picture to the NFL's rebrand of her face.
Check out the league's mock response below: