Ferdinand Cesarano

There's no "instead". The league punished both teams appropriately. The league was consulted right after the theft was discovered, and it decided to continue the game. The Carolina team acted in open defiance of league orders. The theft showed the Streets to be a cheesy fly-by-night operation that was incompetent to operate a team in even the lowest level professional league. For players' property to be stolen from an arena is an embarrassment. But for a team to unilaterally decide to abandon a game and not be charged with a forfeit, this would have been far more than an embarrassment. This would have marked the league as not a professional league at all, but, rather, an elaborate scam. Short of gambling, this sort of thing is the most serious threat to the integrity of any competition, and merits harsh discipline. Carolina really should have been barred from the playoffs. The locker room wasn't broken into. It was left unguarded. If someone had been in the locker room, then it wouldn't have been unguarded. And the thefts would not have taken place. I get that it's fun to mock low-level leagues for their cut corners and their haphazard organisation. But that's no justification for turning a simple theft by opportunists from an unguarded room into some kind of murder mystery. No one was ever in any physical danger. The point here is not to defend the New York Streets organisation, which evidently was not competent to run a team even in this low-level league. Nor is the point to minimise the seriousness of the property being lost by players who make very little money. The only point is that the baseline requirement of a pro sports league is that the integrity of its competition be maintained. Even a league at the NAL's low level cannot be expected to tolerate a team walking off when that team has been ordered to play. No matter what other mistakes the NAL has made (such as awarding a team to the Streets' owners and allowing that team to play in an inadequate building), the league unquestionably did the right thing by forfeiting a game when a team walked off. Every other league would have done the exact same thing under the circumstances.

True. But not applicable to this situation. The New York team was heavily fined for its incompetence in allowing the thefts to occur. (And the team's owners should probably be sued for the value of the lost property.) But it was not an issue of worker safety. So the Carolina team had no legitimate reason to abandon the game. The league decided to continue the game, and to deal with discipline against New York later (which it did do). Carolina had the obligation to abide by that decision.

@Brian in Boston - I don't disagree with any of that. In particular, the New York Streets' field was an absolute joke. Still, the forfeit was the right decision. You simply cannot have a team walking off in the middle of the game. Failure to impose that forfeit would have damaged the NAL's integrity to a far greater extent than anything listed above.

When the environment around the game is not safe? They sure as hell can. And should. Wrong. The league has the authority to call off a game; but a team absolutely may not take it upon itself not to play. A team walking off represents a dangerous affront to the league's integrity. In professional sports, if a team abandons a game, it has forfeited that game. Any other result fatally undercuts the credibility of the competition. This was a test of the NAL's integrity and professionalism; and the league passed that test by assessing the forfeit, as every other professional league would do if one of its teams took an unauthorised powder in the middle of a game. The New York Streets organisation showed its incompetence, and was heavily fined for its appalling lapse. But, more important, the NAL showed its seriousness by defending its integrity.

The game was properly forfeited to the Streets because Carolina walked off. A team cannot unilaterally decide not to play.

I'm glad I picked up my gear when I had the chance.

Anaheim is nowhere. It is known for exactly one thing, and is insignificant as a city. It has no metropolitan area — because it is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. All of this tells us (1) that "Anaheim" is not a fit name for a Major League Baseball team, and (2) that any Major League Baseball team located in that city should be called "Los Angeles". You cannot sit thirty miles away from one of the world's biggest and most important cities and pretend not to be within that city's sphere of influence (even if you're in another county). Anaheim is to Los Angeles as Pontiac is to Detroit, as Richfield is to Cleveland, and as Chester is to Philadelphia. Sorry, but hockey is indeed different. The NHL is not on the level of Major League Baseball or the NFL. It is on the level of MLS; there might one day be something like an FC Anaheim, just as there is an Anaheim team in the NHL. But Major League Baseball and the NFL are simply too big for that town; teams from those leagues located in Anaheim would not take that city's name without a hefty bribe of the sort that caused the Angels to temporarily stoop to doing so.

Ah, right! Thanks for the correction. That is a pretty silly comparison. (That much I got right.) Though I can see the point that it looked too much like the Louis Vuitton logo, as @rjrrzube suggested.

I'm partial to red with a black facemask. I have to say that I like grey more than red for the helmet. The lion statues are grey; so I'd like to see grey be more prominent. And I also think that red should remain just an accent colour. Still, I like the red helmet more than the black one. And of course I like the logo as a defined form placed on the side of the helmet, rather than as a disjointed group of oversized shapes that cover the helmet from front to back.

"Black for black's sake" is a good and useful phrase. It captures the creative bankruptcy of shoving black into colour schemes where it doesn't belong (those of the Mets, Royals, Reds, Knicks, etc.). But a word I really hate is "squatchee". This communicates nothing that is not communicated by the normal English word "button" that has been used for more than a century.

The New York helmet logo is great. But the logo doesn't really stand out on the black helmet. The helmet, when you look at it, appears simply to have three stripes. You have to stare pretty intensely in order to make out the lion's face. I think the helmet should be grey, and should feature the outlined logo. There the lion's head really stands out.

These are actually really solid uniforms. Had the XFL imitated these (and the others from the film) they would be better off. This is how New York's sleeve stripes should look.

If I remember correctly, the problem was actually that the original logo resembled the Louis Vuitton logo. Too lazy to look it up, but that's what I recall. Ah, maybe you are right. I was going by memory without researching, and could very well have been mistaken. On second thought, perhaps the swastika allegations came up with respect to the Los Angeles logo (which was never changed.) Even given the sloppiness of my memory, for which I apologise, I will reiterate my assessment of Las Vegas as the best-looking team in the original XFL.

I don't remember this, what are you referring to This was the original announced logo for Las Vegas. But some people claimed (in my opinion baselessly) that this logo resembled a swastika. It is to the Las Vegas team's credit that it came up with such a good one so quickly to replace this.

Most of that was garbage. But Las Vegas looked superb, which is amazing considering that the helmet logo was the team's second, after the first one was thrown out for highly dubious reasons. San Francisco had a very creative helmet logo. But the best helmet logo was that of the Hitmen. And that team's sleeve stripes that go all the way around the sleeve provide a contrast to the awkward truncated stripes of the Guardians' uniform.

Too many teams have the same colour jersey and pants. Every one of these teams should be wearing white pants with their coloured jerseys. Only Houston and St Louis got it right. Also, every team does not need to have a stripe down the side of the jersey. New York wins in this respect for not having one. The St Louis helmet is spectacular. Based on this alone, that team has the best uniform.

The first was the day of the Chambliss home run in 1976 that ended the Lean Years and gave the Yankees their first pennant in my lifetime. That was the first and only time I felt pure elation to that degree. The next was the day the victory in 1977 World Series restored the Yankees to their proper place. On that day I felt that I might burst with pride. And then, in the most magical year of all, 1978, there was the day of the win against the scum of Boston in the one-game playoff to cap the Comeback, followed by the day of the completion of yet another comeback, this one in the World Series, to vanquish the historic enemies the Dodgers. This inspired shivers of awe at the manifest greatness embodied by these giants. There is no way for me to rank these moments in what was a truly wonderous period; they're all tied for first place. [Edit: after a bit of thought, occasioned by periodic reminders of this thread, I have changed my mind. I now see that the greatest moment for me was the pennant-winning Chambliss home run of 1976. Of course the winning of the World Series the following two years was glorious; but no single moment touches me as much as the Shot Heard Round the World II. I am reminded of this by the tears that tend to come upon my viewing of that clip, and my hearing Phil Rizzuto shout "The Yankees win the pennant!"] I was so lucky to experience these events; and I was the perfect age to appreciate them: old enough to possess a contextualising knowledge of history, yet young enough to be profoundly influenced. I sure enjoyed some good moments as an adult, such as the Yankees' next World Championship in 1996 that marked my retirement as a follower of current baseball, and the full-circle feeling of Chelsea's two championships in 2004 and 2005 that welcomed me into my new role as a soccer fan. Then there was Chelsea's 2012 Champions League win and also three more league titles, as well as the Nets' two glorious runs to the Finals in 2002 and 2003. But nothing matches the joyful feelings inspired by the moments described above, just as there is no sadness that could touch the despair that accompanied my worst moment. Such extraordinary depth of passion as stirred by sports is, for me, a function of childhood.

I am definitely for this. The current situation should really be a boon for the independent leagues, on account of the availability of both owners and playing talent.

The Giants built their own park.

I don't know about that. Neither team should really have to give up its identity on account of this merger. College games of the sort of "Wildcats vs. Wildcats" happen, and it harms nothing. Then we have frequent soccer matches between two teams both called "United". And let's not forget the CFL's old Roughriders / Rough Riders situation, which is exactly analogous to this, in that it resulted from the merger of two leagues.

According to the podcast This Is the XFL, the draft will not be broadcast.

This is very nice: straight lines; no bevels; beautiufl shape. I would love to see this as the helmet logo. (Though I still wish the nickname had been "Gargoyles".) This comment reminds me how bold it is for the XFL to have an "NYG" logo.

This new combined league is going to keep the names "CIF" and "NAL" for the conferences? So, one of its conferences is going to be called "the National Arena League"? Hmm. The whole name thing is going to be messy. No other league name has a fraction of the recognition of the name "Arena Football League". For this reason, the tendency to call the NAL "the Arena Foodball League" was strong. The Westchester County Executive did this at the press conference welcoming the New York Streets; and the Dragons' television analyst Will Holder (the former New York Dragons player) did it several times during every game telecast. So, whatever they call the league, getting the name out there will be a challenge. Anyway, I am glad I got my Streets hats when I did. I suppose I will soon be revising my sig.

I don't have to, because the Angels have done the right thing and reverted to the name Los Angeles.

The Florida Marlins won the World Series; that didn't keep the team from correcting its name to "Miami". Also, the New Jersey Devils exist, as did the New Jersey Nets and New Jersey Generals. Yet the current XFL wised up and named its Meadowlands team the New York Guardians. even after having erred the last time by including New Jersey in the name of the New York / New Jersey Hitmen . And of course MLS's team in northern New Jersey is rightfully called New York, despite its origin with the risible New York / New Jersey moniker. The important point is that a city's sphere of influence extends far beyond its borders, even into other municipalities. And this goes double for the collosi of New York and Los Angeles. If you turn on the television in Anaheim, all the local stations are Los Angeles stations; and this is all you need to know in order to establish objectively and conclusively that that town is part of the L.A. metropolitan area. Indeed, Anaheim is significant only on account of being part of that urban area, not in its own right. Leagues smaller than Major League Baseball can reasonably identify with less significant locales; for instance, the NHL with teams in the Los Angeles and New York areas called Anaheim and New Jersey, respectively. The MLL once had a team called Long Island, which made sense for that league (a lot more sense than changing that team's name to New York despite the fact that the team's entire fan base is located on the Island and not in the City). But the bigger leagues should not be dealing with that sort of nonsense. In a league the calibre of Major League Baseball, goofy Anaheim has no business being listed alongside the Chicagos and Philadephias of the world. Even Kansas City and Milwaukee, the smallest cities in the Major Leagues, dwarf Anaheim — not only in population, but also in cultural significance and overall mystique. "Anaheim" in the Major Leagues. Egad, man. Major League Baseball is better than that.