Mac the Knife

Nice to see OT Sports get some business... that catfish just looks wrong in Brewers colors, though.

Here's what I don't understand about the Raleigh (sorry, they're Raleigh's team, I'm gonna call 'em that) Hurricanes... I'll do the same for the Charlotte Panthers... What happens when, inevitably, the organization has to part company with Brind'Amour, presuming they have to fire him? The team already has already spent the past decade alienating its fan base. Right or wrong, the Ron Francis firing was handled with about the same tact Jerry Jones used when he dealt with Tom Landry back in '89. Brind'Amour's a great guy and popular with the few fans the team has left - what happens when they have to ****can him?

"With the second pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, the Carolina Hurricanes select...

Nothing new there... and we won't have it for that much longer. This guy's ultimately going to move the team or sell it to someone who will. Only when it comes to hockey itself. But rightfully so - the southern markets are, by and large, inferior when it comes to pro hockey. Again, let us have a Major League Baseball franchise, and the Hurricanes can go anywhere. I'd jettison them, the Durham Bulls and the Carolina Mudcats in a heartbeat to get the A's to move to Raleigh... or even the (Devil) Rays, provided we could rebrand the team when they moved.

I came across the Philadelphia Soul's 2017 ArenaBowl ring today. Wow. Did they really put a big budget into that one.

Unpopular opinion: where football jerseys are concerned, with rare exception, all jerseys that don't use the old-school, varsity style numeral font? Suck.

Aw, c'mon... if that guy's not the epitome of "70's macho despite wearing a friggin' hoop earring," what is?

Get rid of the color rash, and I'd be all for it. I'll back you up on this. Every time I hear "Rays" I don't think sun. I think of my brother in law. Or Ray Romano. If they *had* to rebrand, which they didn't, they should've went with Stingrays, or went all the way and picked something so completely different that it never would be considered similar (e.g., the Houston Colt .45's going to Astros). The "let's go back 20-30 years" thing has been going on my entire lifetime. In the 70's the 50's were retro. In the 80's, people thought it cool to either look like hippies, or go the complete opposite direction and call themselves 'yuppies.' Fashion in the 1990's was nothing compared to the 70's when it came to being tacky - including when it came to sports uniforms... and with respect to the latter, the NFL of the 2010's alone makes this decade dwarf every past decade, in all sports, combined. Because nothing epitomizes Johnny Canuck like a whale. It's like Uncle Sam being represented by a rabbit. I won't argue with you on Ravens > Browns, but I'll take the rest of the argument in the opposite direction and suggest that not only should the Browns identity not have been mothballed, but that Bob McNair should've demanded that for his $700 million franchise fee, Houston should've got the Oilers name and branding so as to revive it. I've got nothing against the Houston Texans, but the Houston Oilers identity and brand were inconic, even when the team sucked wind. You love the jersey design? No problem. You love the Buffaslug logo? See below. You should, immediately upon reading this, go to Google, look up your nearest psychiatrist, call them and arrange an appointment. Because you are in obvious need of help. Now, my unpopular opinion, in the form of a question: Where's a John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz or Lee Harvey Oswald when you really need one?

As someone who has lived in Raleigh longer than the Hurricanes have? They're welcome to play 41 games a year there next season if they like. The only caveat? We get a Major League Baseball team in trade for 41 games. We'll even take the Marlins.

Only one against Eagles, though... and not the latest one. Here's one: of the 18 franchises to be part of the Arena Football League in 2011, only one remains in that league today - the Philadelphia Soul.

I agree with this assessment. While I expect the color schemes to be a little on the outlandish side, the overall branding is going to seem way toned down from XFL 2K1 - more traditional. Fewer Memphis Maniax and Los Angeles Xtreme, and more Boston Breakers and Oakland Invaders. A less is more approach.

What do you suppose the odds are of, instead of incorporating team-specific elements on the ring top, the Panthers or Broncos opt to really emphasize the SB50 logo as the centerpiece? Unlikely perhaps, but it'd sure make the 50 ring distinctive from its predecessors.

I've got to say... that's one helluva fan ring then. Best one I think I've ever seen.

Canadians would disagree with you, as would Brits and Germans, but I digress... If it's played only one place on Earth, by default its champions are world champions, no?

Is it possible to both like and dislike each and every one of these at the same time? For example, the "World Champions" layout on the ring at left is done in a beautiful font, but the rounded shape of the top of the ring I'm not as fond of. The middle ring meanwhile has a solid, traditional (by 21st century standards) style'd top, but lacks character. The ring on the right suffers from the same traits. Had the Giants incorporated that gold "World Champions" encirclement on all three rings, but in a block form akin to the shaping of the middle ring, plus utilized the interlocking "SF" layout from the third ring (at right)? They'd have one dynamite looking championship ring. As it is, they have three decent, but rather bland looks that I don't think will stand the test of time design-wise.

I was actually surprised the Seahawks rings were as similar as they are. The '14 ring is a significant drop in styling however, and sends a bit of motivational statement of its own if you think about it.

Yeah. The City of Glendale's money.

National Football League 2016 American Conference North Division - Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh South Division - Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, Tennessee East Division - Baltimore, Buffalo, New England, NY Jets West Division - Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Oakland National Conference North Division - Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Minnesota South Division - Carolina, Dallas, New Orleans, Tampa East Division - Atlanta, NY Giants, Philadelphia, Washington West Division - Arizona, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle -or- American Conference North Division - Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh South Division - Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, Tennessee East Division - Baltimore, Buffalo, New England, NY Jets West Division - Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, San Diego National Conference North Division - Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Minnesota South Division - Carolina, Dallas, New Orleans, Tampa East Division - Atlanta, NY Giants, Philadelphia, Washington West Division - Arizona, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle -or- American Conference North Division - Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh South Division - Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami, Tennessee East Division - Baltimore, Buffalo, New England, NY Jets West Division - Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Oakland National Conference North Division - Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Minnesota South Division - Dallas, New Orleans, St. Louis, Tampa East Division - Carolina, NY Giants, Philadelphia, Washington West Division - Arizona, Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco, Seattle

The teams have as much to do with ring designs as the manufacturers nowadays. Odds are whomever was making the decision saw a previous ring and said, "I want something like that one, but for us." I honestly prefer the '15 ring to the other two, with the '10 ring second and the '13 ring (with the red) looking (at least in the depiction) just God awful. To be original with the '15 ring, I'd probably have done the hair and feathers in stones of their respective colors - it would have really given it some uniqueness and some 'pop.'

I think they both sound fine but Miami works better now as in present day for a couple of reasons. They aren't the only MLB team in Florida anymore as they were when they were created. Also, they're now literally playing in the city of Miami, as they used to play an hour north in Miami Gardens, technically a different city and even a different county. Also, there were legal issues with the city of Miami asking for the name change as a perk for helping to build the new ballpark. All of these things are well known, so I'm sure most knew all of this. But yes, Florida Marlins sounds wonderful as well, probably better honestly. But I'll add a fun trivia fact... when the team was created in 1991, the first owner actually wanted them to be specifically called the "South Florida Marlins"... the Miami name was involved as well but the Florida name was chosen because they predicted (correctly) that in the future a second Florida team would be born and they wanted to kinda grab fans from all over the state before that 2nd team could build its fanbase. In a sense, it worked. Actually, Huizenga wanted initially to name the team the "Florida Flamingos," complete with a predominately pink and black color scheme, but fortunately someone talked him out of it. He also wanted to use "South Florida," but MLB's marketing arm nixed that. Oddly enough, there's only one professional sports league that regulates whether a team is required to use a city name vs. a state name vs. a regional name... the Arena Football League.

How? Florida Marlins rolls off the tongue. They were created when there were no other MLB teams in Florida And they changed it soon after there was another team in Florida. Also, there are 7 states in the US that have and will have more than one pro team per league in each state: California Florida Missouri New York Ohio Pennsylvania Texas Of the teams in those states (not counting New York), only two currently use the state names (Texas Rangers and Florida Panthers), and those two teams are named after something. To me, California Kings sounds just as good as the LA Kings (and better than the unabbreviated Los Angeles Kings). Adding in teams that recently changed their names, you have the California Angels, California (Golden) Seals, and Florida Marlins. All of which sound good. Some work better than others, and for different reasons. "California Angels" worked, for example, as it distinguished the franchise from the Los Angeles Dodgers and had a unique identity (no one else was using "California") all its own. "Texas Rangers" worked due to its connection with the law enforcement agency. "Colorado Rockies" worked because of its previous use by the NHL as well as memories of John Denver's song "Rocky Mountain High." "Florida Marlins" was a bad choice, but honestly they should've stuck with it. "New England Patriots" was a bad choice, but it was picked on the fly after a poorly conceived effort to rebrand as the "Bay State Patriots." "Golden State Warriors" was devised as a means of enlisting support in Oakland while not pissing off San Franciscans too much. "Carolina Panthers" was a futile attempt at extending an expansion team's fan base not only across the North/South Carolina state line, but to further eastern and coastal cities where it had no chance of succeeding. By and large I'm a fan of "regional" names, especially in cases where the team's not playing in a "large market proper" (e.g., Anaheim, Arlington Texas). But in as many cases as not, the reasons behind that branding don't seem to pan out.

During the 1984 calendar year, Tampa Stadium hosted two pro football league championship games.

I'll begin with the disclaimer that I'm a lifelong Penguins fan, but even without that link I thought the Pens cup rings depicted are impressive. The 1893 ring is wonderful - simple, understated, yet a fitting emblem of a champion.

If you count the 1960-62 New York Titans and the 1963-69 New York Jets as separate AFL franchises, which would make you the only person ever to do so.