Ferdinand Cesarano

While the St. Louis coach is also the general manager, the positions of head coach and GM involve two different sets of responsibilities. Assuming that the XFL will allow teams to trade players between the league's teams, someone has to make the decisions about which players to pursue and which players to offer. This is not purely a business decision; it is also a player personnel decision. You seem to be suggesting that all teams should have coaches who double as GMs. But that seems a bit unrealistic, as few coaches would want the additional load of administrative duties that come with being a general manager.

I say buy it and wear it. If you used moral upstangingness as your criterion, you could wear nothing but St. Pauli gear. The team I support most, NYCFC, has an owner who is the deputy prime minister of the UAE, where homosexuality is a capital crime. When I was a Yankee fan, I knew full well that Steinbrenner was a Nixon supporter and a major Republican contributor. None of this prevented/prevents me from wearing these teams' gear, as a team takes on a meaning and an identity that are separate from the identity and the persona of its owner. (What prevents me from wearing Nets gear is its total lack of aesthetic merit.) On the question of the AAF in particular, I think you should resist the urge to demonise the league too much. There is certainly no valid comparison to the Fyre Festival, which was nothing but an intent to scam from the beginning, or even to Theranos, which started as a serious business but then quickly degenerated into a scam perpetrated by its founder. By contrast, the AAF's founders didn't scam anyone; they had every intention of running the league and paying the players and coaches on an ongoing basis. It was only when one of the early backers suddenly disappeared that the AAF became vulnerable to takeover by a predatory investor who had no wish to operate the league according to its founders' plan. If only Reggie Fowler, the early investor who flaked out, had backed off earlier; in that case the league could probably have survived by delaying its debut season until next year (and thereby avoiding having to cede control to the vulture Tom Dundon). I disagree with the vitriol directed by torch-bearing mob towards Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian, as Ebersol's grand statements about the league were true when he made them. Also, the egregious events after the league folded, such as leaving players without medical coverage and not paying so many creditors, must be blamed entirely on Dundon and on no one else. So, even if you want to bring ethics into your choice of team gear, AAF gear can still be worn with a clear conscience on account of the good intentions involved in the league's founding.

I can see why people would think the Yankees are black and white, especially before HD tv’s when they midnight navy would look like black. I have heard the Yankees' numbers and lettering described as black by radio announcers on games from the 1930s and 1940s. (So I don't feel so bad for having thought that the San Diego Fleet wore brown or that the Salt Lake Stallions wore white.)

You could even possibly add fraudsters to that wonderful list of adjectives. Those are nouns.

No, you are not. To be clear: the Mets' use of pinstripes is not a tribute to the Yankees. The team's colours came from the Giants and Dodgers; but the pinstripes are just one of the array of standard baseball styles, a feature that plenty of teams have used. It is organic to the Mets. The Mets have worn pinstripes for 58 seasons; to illustrate how long that is, consider that it is the same amount of time that the Yankees had been wearing pinstripes as of 1972. This design element is absolutely essential to the Mets' look.

Maybe they'll hire Klaus instead.

First of all, paying the salaries of players and coaches does not constitute a "misuse" of funds. But, yes, Fowler evidently disliked what he saw and pulled out. The point, however, is that this does not mean that Ebersol's early pronouncements about the league's funding were lies, as those comments were true when he made them. Anyway, if Fowler was expecting a profit right away, he was living in fantasy land. Any reasonable investor in a new league has to be prepared to lose money for years before the league can be profitable.

Hold on, now. It appears that Ebersol's claim of having the league funded was based upon promises made by another investor who eventually went back on his pledge after the whole thing was announced. That's not a lie or a scam on Ebersol's part. The people who lied were Dundon and the original investor Reggie Fowler. (And whether Ebersol was paid any money this week is neither here nor there.)

Here we imagine a scenario in which the three biggest leagues of arena/indoor football, the AFL, the IFL, and the NAL, merge into one grand reconstituted Arena Football League. ATLANTIC CONFERENCE CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE NORTHEAST MID-ATLANTIC SOUTHEAST NORTH CENTRAL WEST Albany Empire AC Blackjacks Carolina Cobras Bismarck Bucks Columbus Destroyers Arizona Rattlers Massachusetts Pirates Baltimore Brigade Columbus Lions Green Bay Blizzard CR River Kings SD Strike Force New York Streets Philadelphia Soul Jacksonville Sharks QC Steamwheelers Iowa Barnstormers Tucson Sugar Skulls Washington Valor Orlando Predators Sioux Falls Storm Nebraska Danger Schedule: no inter-conference play three-team divisions: 3 games vs. each divisional rival;1 game vs. 6 non-divisional teams = 12 four-team divisions: 2 games vs. each divisional rival: 1 game vs. 6 non-divisional teams = 12 playoffs: divisional champs plus one wildcard from each conference

Right. That is a better match.

It looks like a font called Jersey M54 in all respects except the middle of the M. Maybe the M was modified later, and the pointy bottom of its middle section was flattened out.

I usually love contrasting front numbers. (Marlins; Orioles.) But on the powder blue Royals jerseys all the lettering should be white, and with no outline. The Royals are the only team that should use powder blue. And it goes without saying that this is a road uniform, and that the pants ought to be powder blue also.

They got the cap right. But not the jersey front.

Swap Cincinnati and Montreal.

The Nebraska Danger of the IFL have a great announcer! While I was waiting for the debut of the New York Streets of the NAL on YouTube, I happened across the IFL game between the Nebraska Danger and the Green Bay Blizzard. The game used Green Bay's television feed with the sound from Nebraska's radio call. And I discovered that the announcer on this radio call, Steve Stein of KRGI, is absolutely wonderful! He employs cadences and varying pitches in his voice so beautifully. Listening to him is a great pleasure, like hearing a virtuoso musician. I cannot say enough about his guy, who is clearly a phenomenal pro. Whatever KGRI is paying Stein, it is not enough. The job he does on this game is top-notch, worthy of the major leagues in any sport. (I will assume that he can call the other sports. With the command of his voice that he possesses, he surely could call baseball.) I will definitely make an effort to catch more of Steve Stein's calls in the future.