DustDevil61

After realizing that the Dock Spider is an actual thing, I'm fine with the name and logos (for the most part). It's not as refined as it can be, and I can do without the "DS" in the water (as if seeing a spider on a dock above water isn't enough to give you the idea), but it's not as contrived a name (*ahem* Rumble Ponies, Baby Cakes, etc.) as it first lets on.

Since the Quebec Nordiques may yet be a few years away (if at all, thank you very much NHL BoG and Gary Bettman), I've done some digging up of their aesthetic history. While I'm perfectly fine with their iconic NHL look and would love to see it come back when (or if) the NHL returns to Quebec, there's something that just seems, i dunno, a tad off--namely, the lack of red. After seeing some of their WHA looks, from their initial, 1972-73 Light Blue/Red jerseys: to their darker blue mid-1970s uniforms: I've come to the conclusion that the Nordiques could've looked even better with a sprinkle more of red. First of all, if the NHL ever returns to QC, the inaugural 1972 powder blue/red uniform (the first picture posted) needs to make a comeback as an alternate/throwback/fauxback (perhaps with the shade of blue Quebec settled on when they entered the NHL). A lighter shade of blue uniform with red accents is something the NHL needs badly. (However, I'm not sure about its white counterpart, as that uniform does have a bit too much red.) As for the regular set? Something along the lines like this: but with the red outline on the numerals that the Nordiques actually wore, thin red stripes flanking both sides of the large white pants stripe, and of course the fleur-de-lises on the back. (Image yoinked from Hockey Jersey Concepts.) So basically? This might be perhaps one the most unexpected cases of "getting it right the first (couple) time(s)," as I'd love to get my hands on a replica 1972 Nordiques jersey. Don't get me wrong, I think the Nordiques' NHL uniforms are some of the best to ever grace NHL ice, but adding that little bit of red would've made it nigh untouchable.

Albuquerque Isotopes is a great, fun name (and Casper Ghosts was too). Neither of them have adjectives, either. I wonder if there's any correlation...

Over/under on the number of municipalities not named Tempe whose residents are present plead for the Tempe City Council to approve such a deal: 3 (bonus points if Glendale is among those represented).

Anyways, it looks like they photoshopped the crown on all 4 logos (and flipping/rotating as needed), the two smiling baby face components also look eerily similar, and of course you have to have a triangular smirk (How does a baby already have a full set of chompers?) and mascot swinging a bat #becauseBrandiose. To be fair, the font for the wordmark is good, and there's at least some charm to having a baby mascot (and one with a big smile), but the lengths to which the team management and Brandiose went to make it happen is too much. By the way, wasn't there supposed to be a vote on the team name? What ever happened to that? Or did ownership decide, "Screw it, we'll go with Baby Cakes'?" And the Pelicans throwbacks are pretty awesome (especially the Black/Yellow one). Maybe someone should've been willing to throw enough money at Tom Benson to just go with that.

I WANT TO GET OFF!!!

I can also see the arena get a lot of use out of Arizona State's hockey team. Meanwhile, Glendale asks: "We bled our city dry for this?" while the Coyotes be like:

Actually, the main problem with those is that the red the 49ers wore with that set was actually more of a cardinal (i.e., darker) red. Have them use the traditional, candy-apple red they've worn outside of that set and you have a great modernized 49ers look...and there's even some justification for using black!

The only thing this Brandiose set is missing is the Jumbo Shrimp swinging a french fry, but everything other Brandiose staple is there: Ornate, cartoony wordmark, cartoony comic book-esque logo (same type of large eyes and triangular smirk in nearly every other Brandiose brand), and of course, the wacky, (often) food-based name. What's with food-based names and Brandiose? Did Jason and Casey gain weight from all of that ballpark food, and did they liked it so much that they decided to name half the teams that they've rebranded because of it or something? OK, that's only half serious here, but these #DelusionsOfBrandeur have gotten out of control, especially when the Jacksonville Suns have now been claimed as a casualty.

Big 12 Expansion, Summed up in a GIF:

I don't think this is correct. IIRC many of the expansion candidates have been competitive with the Big 12 when playing them. I'll have to pull up the tweet I saw earlier. Here it is (albeit ESPN): Yea, I noticed that just as I was posting, though the point I was trying to make is that the reasoning from the TV partners that expansion would dilute the Big 12 is flawed. Basically, there's no telling exactly what's going to happen until we hear it, given the Big 12's history of flip-flopping RE: Expansion and this being a Chip Brown post. That said, I'm not holding my breath on expansion.

I don't think this is correct. IIRC many of the expansion candidates have been competitive with the Big 12 when playing them. I'll have to pull up the tweet I saw earlier. Here it is (albeit ESPN):

I've got a question or two that's been irritating for me...since the last update or so, there's been no way to select custom text colors. There used to be a select color or custom color bar when you'd be able to put in a HEX/RGB value, for, say the NFL Pick 'Em challenge, but why has the feature been taken out? Is there a way around it? Would there be the possibility to put it back in?

Wood Ducks is workable (and could be excellent if done right), but Brandiose will probably interpret "wood ducks" as literal wooden ducks, with a logo of a wooden duck swinging either a 2x4 or his detatched foot. And yes, all the bad name options (Shaggers, HamHawks, Hogzillas and the locale being "Down East" instead of Kinston) reek heavily of #DelusionsOfBrandeur.

Dumb choice to go with "Down East" in any case. Where's Down East? What's Down East? Isn't that a department store or something? As for the name, each nickname is idiotic aside from Eagles and Wood Ducks.

I agree for expanding usable numbers, though I like 90-99 for linebacker use. In fact, I'd expand the use of 90-99 to tight ends and 80-89 to linebackers. Maybe it's just from watching college football or older NFL/AFL videos where numbering rules are/were less strict and those number sets seem to be used fairly often, but those numbers always seemed to fit just as well as what we're familiar with today. While I'm at it, why not let players use 0 (QBs/Ks/Ps) and 00 (treating it as an abridged, 2-digit version of 100; LBs/TEs/D Line)? I've never understood the rationale in keeping 0 and 00 off-limits to players except for the grandfathered Jim Otto and Ken Burrough (OK, Burrough was a WR, but still). It'll never happen, but I can always dream, can't I? (Side note: Apparently 90-99 were off-limits in the NFL until 1987. Maybe numbering rules weren't as loose as I had previously thought.)

Glad the outdated Tom and Jerry-esque logo is going, but the Green, Gold (and Black) are as well? Dang. True it is. I really wanted to put this on my list of potential "Go to" minor-league parks in the future, given its outlying location.

The Los Angeles Rams have also not played the Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, or Baltimore Ravens. They'll be scratching off Carolina this season.

I also recall a concept that had the Nuggets in a Black/Yellow color scheme. I like that idea (I might add light blue or maybe silver trim too), or, failing that, go with either navy, black, or dark gray with gold and silver (maybe even emphasize gold and silver with the dark color separating them)--after all, they are basically named for precious metals. Why not own that?

Having a giant "CLEVELAND" is extraneous, but something more subtle, like the size of "Browns" on the previous set, maybe a touch bigger and not a color that overpowers the numbers (orange on brown w/white numbers, orange on white w/brown numbers, brown on orange w/white numbers) could work. But that's just my $0.02.

Fixed. That said, Orange Jersey/Brown Pants is one of the better combos of this Browns set.

#DelusionsOfBrandeur

I'll admit, those are nice in a vacuum, and the biggest problem with them is that they're the Islanders' BFBS uniform.

My thoughts: Night Owls is the only acceptable one of the bunch and even then there are better options to go around.

Pretty much this. Granted, if a Las Vegas NHL team is indeed reality (damn you for not going to Quebec also, Bettman and BoG), the shortest timeframe puts their arrival at a little more than a year out, and a lot can happen in that time. Dave Ellmore and Donna Tuttle could grow weary of the ECHL team, Foley could buy them out, or the AHL and NHL could wait another couple years to provide an AHL affiliate for the Las Vegas Skating Bootstrappers, but I'd say that at this time it's just not likely.