gosioux76

What a nightmare and, simultaneously, a perfect metaphor for the current state of NBA aesthetics. Not only will we make your team schizophrenic, we'll now combine all of its personalities onto one uniform! Good lord.

I've always loved this mark. It's the rare example that works as both logo and wordmark. I could see the same jet treatment applied above a similarly styled "NY" to be used either as a secondary mark or -- for those of you who believe they should showcase the gravitas of New York — on the helmet. The other thing I really like about this: it accomplishes the difficult (in my mind) task of showcasing a jet without being tripped up by the need to angle it to show the wings on each side, like the awkwardly shaped 1963 logo.

That's a lot of disparate elements that would seem too complicated to replicate on the modern cut uniforms without significant modifications. Not suggesting it isn't possible, of course. I don't dislike the idea of using the 60s set as a baseline but reimagined. In other words, what didn't happen when Nike took the reins.

True. Those were pretty cool. But that was less a sponsorship as much as it was a charitable contribution.

I lived in Portland for 10 years as a business journalist. I can't disagree with most of this analysis, but I have always had serious doubts about the veracity of the corporate support in the city. The biggest corporations there do very little in the way of local branding: Nike doesn't sponsor anything because they don't feel they need to. Their logo is all over the sport without having to send a nickel on marketing. Outside of local health care players, there isn't a deep well of companies waiting to place their brand on sports franchises. I can't speak toward an appetite for season tickets. I suppose there's enough law firms and banks and accounting firms and consulting firms of a certain size — all industries in which networking is key — to buy up a few luxury suites. But Portland isn't a city like Seattle, which is littered with billion-dollar companies. It's a mid-sized and small business town, with a few notable exceptions.

The Gresham project is the latest attempt in the 25-year odyssey of Lynn Lashbrook to bring MLB to Portland. I give him points for persistence, but this initiative -- much like his prior attempts -- is little more than pie-eyed optimism. There's a rendering, but nothing in the way of a legitimate plan. As that story lays out, this is just Lashbrook attempting to kickstart a community discussion around the idea of MLB in Gresham. As for the Portland Diamond Project, they've been spinning their wheels for years now. At this point, they're little more than an apparel brand. Russell Wilson's involvement appears to be cosmetic. They've been talking from the start about how they've got some big-money investors behind the scenes, but they've never shown their cards. The effort could turn out to be legitimate, but at this point it's mostly hype.

This would also explain the old Bengals uniform on display. I wouldn't be surprised to know the NFL had all these displays already prepped before the pandemic hit last year, then just rolled them out as-is this year. The Bengals is the only significant change in that time, and we've already documented the issues the Patriots had in having some players wearing the old number style on new jerseys last year.

I also really like this, only with the current helmet intact. One change I'd suggest: I'm a sucker for the old Cardinals road jerseys, with the thick red stripes on the sleeves outlined in black. Instead of gray stripes and stars on the white jersey, I'd like to see the stripes red and outlined in black or, perhaps simpler, just outline the star in black and leave the stripes red. It would be a nice homage to these old classics.

For an upstart league, one with a history of failure, it got plenty of mainstream coverage. You can't reasonably expect that a spring league filled with wannabe NFLers would immediately get the same attention as a Big Four league. The pandemic killed this league before it got even halfway through its schedule, and there was almost zero indication that it wouldn't have made it to a year two. So, basically, you didn't care.

What makes you think nobody cared in 2020?

This is underselling it quite considerably. Yes, in terms of tangible assets, the XFL is essentially a collection of brands. But it's also a collection of deep-pocketed investors who are willing to come to the table with an existing league that appears to be in financial distress and seeking a way out of it. So maybe discussion of a merger is premature, but I don't think it's as premature as you think it is. And if nothing else, it's an intriguing thought exercise. Such as the question by @McCall about how two leagues with different rules could make a merger work? I would think that in a hypothetical scenario like this, where a storied existing league would merge with a startup, you can't assume either party's rules or structures are set in stone. They'd have to adapt -- give up some things, amend others. I mean, a merger like this for the CFL would sort of be like hitting the nuclear button -- and if you're willing to take such a drastic action, why would you let something like field size get in the way?

I get what you're saying about the brand not being region specific, which is a good point. I'm less bothered by the use of OL. I think soccer fans by now have grown accustomed to names affixed with some sort of initialed prefix or suffix, like AC, FC or SC, that this won't stand out much, nor be an inhibitor. Sure, the OL may require explanation, but it's not a terribly complicated thing to explain. And the smartest thing U.S. pro soccer leagues have done in the past decade is market themselves to soccer fans -- who are less likely to require an explanation -- than Americans they're trying to convert into soccer fans.

I see what you're saying, and that makes sense. It could also be something they use in the aggregate. A version of the name appears on every ballot, and they can say XX% of all voters chose some form of WFT, therefore making it the most logical choice.

Right, that all makes sense, but it doesn't explain why some form of Washington Football Club -- whether it be Washington DC Football Club, just Football Club or some other iteration -- seems to appear on every ballot. To me, that suggests that they're stacking the deck.

From what I can tell, each of these lists has one thing in common: They all include some form of Washington Football Team. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but if that trends hold, it certainly seems like WFT would have the highest chance of getting the most votes if it's the only one that appears on every ballot.

They made the helmet like one of those old Magic Eye posters. You have to cross your eyes in order to see it.

Well, OK, but I still hate it. haha

I like the idea of the full-length jaguar, and the gold stripe, bit I HATE the chrome finish and the gradient. It's tacky, too much of a novelty.

I agree with this sentiment. I always thought of the number changes from college to pros as a rite of passage. I used to like the idea of envisioning a college player I liked in his pro number, and guessing what it might be. I'm all for expanding the use of low numbers for skill-position players. But I like the tradition of having LBs in the 50s and interior linemen in the 60s-70s. If I had it my way, and I surely won't, I'd narrow it further: FBs in the 40s, RBs in the 20s-30s, QBs 7-19, WRs 80-89, kickers 1-6, LBs limited to the 50s. Don't ask me to explain the logic there; there isn't any. It's just the way my mind wants to organize those positions by number.

The Vikings wore white masks briefly in the early ‘80s. I thought they were too much of a distraction, and looked especially bad with the white uniforms. Switching to purple masks was a big upgrade.

That uniform doesn’t work with that uniform. Keep the helmet, ditch the rest.

This is a really good analysis of the situation, Brian. I love it that these amateur wood bat leagues are adopting these charming, cartoonish brands to go with what is likely a more family friendly, carnival-like atmosphere. Going to these games is less about the baseball than it is the experience. Might as well build a brand that's memorable and part of the fun. And to another point, I don't mind when affiliated minor league franchises have somewhat whimsical brands, but there needs to be a limit. Teams like the Montgomery Biscuits or Albuquerque Isotopes or Hillsboro Hops, I believe, do a good job of straddling that line.

That's incredible. I might be in the market for a Disco Turkeys t-shirt. That's fun.

Interesting. This must have just happened today. Their instagram feed shows what looks like a press conference with the old WLAF/NFL Europe helmet on a table across from another one with the new logo. (It almost looks Photoshopped onto that picture, which would be weird.) Apologies, I'm terrible at embedding social media posts on here. https://www.instagram.com/p/CMzTcNOpu-L/

I agree with this. Change is hard, and it'll take whole generations before the franchise can fully embrace a new identity. I was watching North Dakota hockey on TV the other night and the Fighting Sioux gear in the stands still vastly outnumbered the amount of Fighting Hawks gear, and it will for years to come. But there was still Hawks gear there, and that will likely continue to increase as time passes, and the Sioux name will become part of history rather than the phantom present. I have doubts whether a name that reads like, and was intended as, a placeholder can serve that same purpose. The cynic in me thinks, "of course people have warmed to the WFT name. Because it's like tacit approval to just keep calling them by their former name."