THE BEST DOG LOGO IN SPORTS (WHICH I THINK MY DOG WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR)

My family has had four different Great Danes since I was in middle school. I’ve never been much of a dog person (and I probably never will be), but those animals were always so special to be around.

For one, they never seemed to grasp that they weighed anywhere from 150-220 pounds, meaning that they made their best attempts at being lap dogs despite feeling like a tree trunk just fell on your legs.

Their tails, which were about eye level when you were sitting in a chair, felt like steel rods if you were unfortunate enough to get smacked by one.

And if you walked around in public with a Great Dane, you were sure to get a few points paired with murmurs of “Scooby-Doo” from kids who spotted them (or some nervous sidesteps by people justifiably scared of a dog that size).

The point is that uniqueness is what makes Great Danes undeniably the best dog breed, meaning that all other dog breeds are not as good as them. The University of Albany understands this, and they’ve just provided us all with a branding upgrade that decided to go all in with a dosage of realism that makes their dog logo the best one in sports. Boston U and every school that has a banal bulldog mascot can’t hold a candle to this majestic creature:

The realism is a pretty welcome development, as previous UAlbany logos probably crept up very close to violating a Hanna-Barbera trademark of some sort...

Sportslogos.net

Of course, the verisimilitude in the brand new look is so remarkable that as soon as the news came across my timeline, it had me doing a double take at my own Great Dane, which is no doubt a dead ringer for UAlbany’s new logo:

photo by: my stepmom

The likeness is so uncanny that I couldn’t help but wonder if, just maybe, our family’s dog was the inspiration for the redesign...

To make things even more interesting, our Great Dane’s name is Manhattan, which is a place in New York. Albany is also a place in New York. So now we know that Albany (a) unveiled a logo with a grey European Great Dane that (b) makes the same scowl as our dog, which (c) has a name that shares the same state borders as the place where the school is located. Do you see the dots connecting? Are you beginning to see things fall into place now? Are you dropping your mug full of hot coffee like Chazz Palminteri? [Ralph Fiennes voice] Do you see?

On its own, this is already a fantastically redesigned logo, which is saying something in an age where, well, this exists. My tinfoil hat theory that it’s actually our dog that is pictured makes me enjoy it even more. Here’s some more photos of our dog in case you need more proof.