gosioux76

Minnesota lost to Anaheim in the 2003 Western Conference Finals. They were swept, so it's pretty much as if they were never there.

One thing I've noticed and enjoyed about watching MLS on Apple TV+ is that I'm getting more exposure to the various stadiums across the league, and you can really see the evolution of soccer-specific stadium architecture on display. It doesn't seem that long ago that the stadiums in L.A., New Jersey, Philly, Dallas, Salt Lake and Denver stood out as symbols of the MLS' evolution from questionable fringe sport to a stable and growing league. But now when you look at those venues, on TV anyway, they seem like they'd fit better in USL, especially when compared to the flying saucer-like designs in Minneapolis and Philly or the more museum-like designs in St. Louis and what NYCFC is pursuing.

I hope you're right about Orlando, but the people behind the Nashville campaign are very intent on naming an expansion team the Stars. This is from the FAQ on their website:

This is a fantastic idea, but I don't understand why an airline's branding would have any bearing on what a baseball team chooses to do.

Just because those things once existed doesn't make it a good idea. Maybe it's just not what I'm used to, but "32's" sounds very awkward to me. The standard that the 49ers and 76ers have established makes it clear that the name represents a year and not a singular number. The 32s sounds as if the team's mascot is just the number, rather than a year. I'm nitpicking, I realize, but we've nit-picked worse. I can also see that name being weaponized against them: "Washington once again has a bigger number in its name than it does on the scoreboard."

I agree that the Commanders name alone doesn't really stir much emotion. But I have to imagine we'd think much differently about it had they designed uniforms that weren't so abysmal. I've said this on here before, but I really thought the Kraken name was terrible, but seeing it paired with such fantastic logos and uniforms changed the way I feel about it. In that sense, the Commanders name itself is probably salvageable. The right visual branding could make it work.

I'm not sure it makes sense for the league MVP to not make the all-XFL team.

I agree with this. It's a fine secondary mark. They've also paired this with wordmarks that feel incongruous to the primary, as if they were pursuing two different design paths, couldn't pick one, and split the difference.

These Orioles jerseys perfectly capture the bleakness of the city as it was portrayed in "The Wire." That has to be what they were going for?

This is evidence that the Barkley-era unis were ahead of their time and the best this franchise has ever looked. Wearing them as occasional throwbacks doesn't feel sufficient enough. But every attempt at evoking parts of that look fall flat. I'd like to think this is why the Hawks haven't done the same with the Dominique Wilkins-era uniforms, which were that franchise's aesthetic peak. Anything they'd do to pay homage to it wouldn't do it justice.

You're right, but that doesn't mean the absence of complaints means people are OK with the use of taxpayer funds in one place, but not in another. And it's not even a double standard. It's just that in Tempe, even a more favorable deal still feels like throwing good money after bad.

Your secondaries for the Blitz, Gold and Invaders are as good, if not better, than the primaries. Really, well done. In fact, I'd consider using them on the helmet instead of the primary logos, especially with the Gold. I've never been a fan of the gold starburst logo on its own., but using it rising above the mountains within a shield is brilliant. I've also never been a big fan of the Blitz wordmark as a helmet graphic, but your update to it is fantastic. I'd still like to see the helmet with a simpler mark, whether it be your B secondary or something that emphasizes the lightning Z from the wordmark. Regardless, really nice work on these.

This is nothing but an obnoxiously large belt buckle. Carrying this thing around makes you look like someone who lost a bet rather than won a championship.

You're absolutely right. And there's that additional oddity of a team like the Pistons, which will spend five years masquerading as a teal expansion team before coming to their senses and remembering who they actually are. The thing I find odd about the Nuggets current uniforms is that I can't really get a sense of what their actual colors are. Are they a primarily navy+yellow team? Navy + white with touches of yellow and maroon? Navy with imbalanced amounts of dark red/yellow/white? And then for good measure, they thrown in a royal blue alt that doesn't fit in at all. It's one thing for a team to be schizophrenic with its color schemes across decades. The Nuggets seem to be doing it across every uniform all at once. Personally, I was always fond of the Dan Issel-era wordmark, even though I found the uniforms of the pre-rainbow guts era a little lifeless, much like they are today. That's why I really liked their mixtape uniforms from last year (minus the rainbow stripes on the shorts.) Much like with the Timberwolves, I felt that Nike and the team put together something with character that could be the foundation of a permanent new look.

The team has been pretty up front about its intent to sell that space. A year ago, the team president, Bill DeWitt III, said he viewed the jersey sponsorship as being akin to a stadium naming rights deal, in terms of importance and the value in brand exposure. And this February, he said they had had conversations with several brands and were hoping to have a deal done by opening day. I can say this from meeting him, DeWitt is a logo and uniform guy. He's the one who, about four years ago, spearheaded the process for revising the STL primary logo because he noticed there were imperfections and inconsistencies in how the logo was applied. I say all this, because DeWitt was almost certainly the one who made sure the logo would fit seamlessly into the aesthetic of the uniform rather than being an eyesore.

For the most part, I agree with this. I think the reaction to these as disasters was mostly borne out of surprise and the unmet expectations that they didn't do something more ambitious or risky. But now that some time has passed, I can see myself warming up to these, but really only if they come to their senses and avoid the monochrome look, which seems unlikely. That doesn't mean they're not flawed. The size of the home jersey chest wordmark is still comically too big. The use of gray/silver feels too subtle to me. It doesn't add anything to the look. I'd have preferred a black/navy tertiary color, especially on the sleeves of the white jersey.

If the Twins come out with a Harmon Killebrew City Connect jersey I'm totally buying it. Scratch that: I want one of Walter Johnson.

The fact that the company's logo is so horizontal also helps. The league allows for a 4x4-inch patch, but the Cardinals said this one is 4 inches wide by 1-and-a-half tall. Quite a bit smaller than some patches.

Cool, man. Earn enough money on your paper route and you can buy whatever you want!

I'm going to split the difference here. @Chromatic's analysis is 100% right. I see no problem with the Sens leaning into the Roman motif. It's just that in the Sens' case, the brand hasn't been resonant outside of their market, and maybe is even questionable within it. To me, that gives the franchise justification for a wholesale rebrand. But I wouldn't necessarily place the blame on the fact that they chose this Roman imagery to build around. I could see a rebrand continuing down that path, only with more appealing design.

I don't think this is a particularly interesting design for a championship trophy, but I'd love it if the idea is to take the football part of the divisional trophy and ceremonially place it atop the X in the championship trophy as part of the celebration. Is that what's happening? Or did I just make that up?

Maybe this is a minority opinion, but I'd much rather see a retro-inspired alternate than something that makes the team look like cosplayers for a city tourism board marketing campaign. I don't care if it's called "city connect." And as to why the Mariners would sell a City Connect with Griffey's name on it? I'm sure it's because they have data that says anything sells better in Seattle with Griffey's name on it. If someone likes Griffey and they like that jersey, I'm not going to judge them for buying something they like.

I wouldn't call this a rumor. The article you linked says "potential locations revealed," but when you dig into it, it's nothing more than an XFL blogger speculating on possibilities, no differently than we do on here.

I absolutely hate this part of the draft drama. Draft prognosticators spend the months running up to the draft identifying a guy as a sure-thing top 10 pick, build up expectations and get the guy an invite to the draft day green room, where we all watch him — and his family — look increasingly uneasy as every team passes him by. And now this morning, McShay is on TV explaining all of the guy's flaws that he and Kiper just glossed over when they were absolutely certain he'd be the Colts' next QB.

In order to wear that number, John Hadl had to agree to give up his hair.