Miami Dolphins Confirm New Leaked Logo Is Legitimate

Early Wednesday morning, NFL.com briefly featured what appeared to be a newly redesigned logo for the Miami Dolphins. Soon after the new logo began to spread online, Dolphins CEO Mike Dee confirmed that the leaked logo was in fact legitimate.

"It was leaked by somebody at Nike. We had always had a plan to kind of roll it out over a 30-day period, so we're going to start rolling it out. But the logo is only one part of the announcement. It's a complete rebranding of the team," Dee told the Sun-Sentinel on Wednesday.

Though the Dolphins had planned to unveil the logo as a part of an official rebrand, the redesign accidentally popped up on the NFL.com home page several days ahead of the official launch. Soon after, other sites like sportslogos.net hopped on the news and began posting images of the new Dolphins logo around the Web.

Of course, it was never much of a secret anyway. Soon after news leaked, Dolphins defensive end Jared Odrick tweeted a picture of himself wearing a T-shirt wearing the new logo, all but confirming that it was indeed legitimate.

While the new Dolphins logo is a big change from the team’s previous avatar, Dee stressed that there is much more to the Miami Dolphins rebranding than a new logo. Fans of the team can expect to see the full Dolphins relaunch on April 25, the first day of the NFL draft.

"There’s a lot of other elements to the announcement on draft night than just the logo," Dee said. "But now that the logo is out there, we’re going to have some fun with it. Players are excited to adorn the new clothing. You’ll see it around here over the next 30 days leading to the big announcement on April 25."

The new logo is a big departure from the Dolphins’ current logo, which was first introduced in 1995. While the current logo shows an anthropomorphized Dolphin wearing a white helmet with a large, recognizable M, the new logo takes a much more minimalist approach and abandons the recognizable lettering completely. Now, Miami fans and players will be sporting a simple, stylized and slightly less human-looking dolphin on all their gear.