WideRight

I don't sleep enough, so I often work on concepts between 4am-6:30am, when I prepare to go to work, then many evenings, if my wife wants to work on her quilting I head back to the computer and do more. Mostly my USFL project, but sometimes I get inspired to do other things. You should have seen me during COVID when I spent 14 months working from home every day. Lots of series that year. This one is not going to have anywhere near the pacing of the AAFL project, maybe one new design a week if we are lucky.

Hi all, It's only been, what, 2 weeks? And I am already missing the NFL. So, I decided to look over the league and determine which teams I wish would tweak, update, modify, or revert to an older look. I figured I would give it my best shot to design looks that I think capture the spirit of each team while fixing what I see as issues or adding a touch I think they need. Cannot promise I will get to every team. There are quite a few I am fine with as they are now, but there are certainly a decent number that need some work. I don't expect huge changes, entirely new logo packages, or even super-avant garde ideas. i am a classicist by nature, so you may see a lot of 1970's and 1980's elements, but I will add some new ideas where appropriate. So, who is first? Well, to say that I was disappointed in the Cardinals when they unveiled their newest uniforms would be an understatement. They got rid of a lot I hated in their prior look, but they kept a few bad ideas (blood clot all red uniforms) and added some new questionable decisions (using silver as a secondary instead of black, missing the SW palette entirely), and they fell prey to what I consider some of the worst trends of the 2020's, things like stripeless pants, stripeless socks, and the ongoing scourge of the unitard. So, here is my attempt at a modern but traditionalist design all in one. Here is the image, followed by my notes. Elements I put into this design: 1. Darkened the burgundy/cardinal red back to a darker tone more like what I recall from the Lomax/Hart/OJ Anderson years. 2. Switched to a white facemask on white helmet. 3. Decided to add metallic copper as a color, much more aligned with Arizona style than silver, and reminiscent of both the USFL Wranglers and Arena Rattlers. 4. Added the Copper as an outline color to the main logo. 5. Added a truncated 5-stripe pattern to the sleeves, but with a bit of Navajo or Hopi design on the edges, again local flavor. 6. Added a similar shape at the base of the collar. 7. Added an "AZ" monogram within another native pattern shape, which will appear on the pants. 8. Pant stripes are 5-stripe (black-white-red-white-black) on the white pants and 3 colors (white-black-white) on the cardinal pants, with the monogram logo at the hip. 9. Red color block stripe for the white set, striped sock for the cardinal pants. 10. No unitard combo (not really up to me, but in a perfect world), I will accept white over white on hot summer days like preseason or opening week, but never red over red. 11. A small color block containing the player number at the rear bumper of the helmet. 12. Copper built into the sleeve stripes on both jerseys, black used as the outline color on all numbers and NOB. There you go. My take on a pretty traditional Cardinals look that uses a lot of the past (sleeve & pant stripes) but also recognizes some elements of Arizona, particularly Native peoples, culture. I may come up with a black alt uniform, but we start with this. Suggestions on other teams that need some work? I am thinking right now that the Jets, Broncos, Titans, Jaguars, Seahawks, Rams, Commanders, Falcons and Saints are all begging for something new. Which is already a pretty hefty list.

And here is the Copperhead design, which I created very early on when Houston was debating between Apollos and Copperheads. This design would have been the same had the team been in San Antonio or Dallas as well. I continued with the interrupted line motif from the helmet stripe, which you can see on the pant stripe, while the sleeve stripes are more of an attempt at a snake-skin motif, but with rectangular segments of alternating colors.

The Cooperheads would have looked like this: Just kidding. I know what you meant. I will get a full design scheme up for the Copperheads probably this weekend. But, in the meantime, how about these two Atlanta options? A little purple & silver just to be different, and, for Atlanta, of course, a bird theme. And the Pride, just because I was trying to bring in some interesting color combos and was struggling to come up with things tied specifically to Atlanta. I mean you cannot have a logo of people calling a pepsi a Coke or of putting peanuts in their soda, so I was running out of ideas for them.

Got to say that having a UT-Southern just seems odd to me. Tennessee is an East-West state, not a North-South state. Is there really that much distance between the southern edge of the state and its northern edge? It's like that old song about "Kids in America" where Kim Wylde sings about Eastern California. No, Cali is a North-South state, and TN is an East-West state. No need for the U. of Southern Tennessee just like there is no need for the U. of Eastern Vermont.

I am really liking a lot of your uniform designs. i think you have some great ideas for how to imbue some character into each team's kits, but I am not feeling most of the logos, honestly. The current crests with the updated uniforms for me would be really strong, because i am just not seeing the new crests as upgrades in most cases.

Yeah, that is not going to happen. I was able to do this project solely because I had a 2-week Winter Break and got so far ahead on my USFL blog/simulation that I had time to design this entire thing (more or less). The sim is quickly catching up to where I am so I am just not going to be able to devote the time to adding a lot more teams. 16 was my target, and honestly, it is the cap for what I think a second tier AAA football league should shoot for. So, I am going to stop at 16, but I do have a few more unused concepts to reveal, so it is not officially over yet. One more for today, the 3rd Philadelphia concept. This one tries to go a different route, using a pretty complex but old school logo and a muted color palette of navy and grey. The Philadelphia Revolutionaries, or Revs as we expect they would be called.

And now the "What could have been" portion of the project, just to finish it up. We start with Philadelphia. I had 3 unique identities for Philly on tap, and was working on a 4th. Here are the first two of the Philadelphia ideas. Philadelphia Southpaws: Named for one of the most famous boxers of all time and a Philly native, Rocky Balboa. The main logo is a P with a left boxing glove in gold. There is a small secondary logo of the famous Rocky celebrating at the top of the steps pose, which you can see at the rear bumper of the stripe on the helmet. I know it is a bit weird to use one sport's design to reference a totally different sport, but this is Rocky we are talking about here. Philadelphia Flames: I wanted at least one alliterative name, and I thought "Freedom" was a bit played out. So, I went with a fire motif, and looked for options using the letter P made of flames. Not sure if I love this or hate it, but I do think that using two different color shifts (red to orange and orange to yellow) in different pieces of the flame does work.

Here we are, guys. The design for the 16th and final team, the Memphis Mallards. Finally a navy jersey, though a lot of the look is based on the Kelly Green. I also added a secondary logo just to have a different version of the mallard on the sleeve. So, we have our 16 teams. I will post a few of the unused designs from the unused cities over the next few days, but this is the project, the best possible, voted on by fans, 16-team spring football league. Not every team is what I would have picked, but I think that groupthink actually produced a pretty good looking and functional league. Now if we just had a few multi-billionaires willing to fund this we could make it happen.

Well, that was about as lopsided as it gets. With 13 votes, ahead of two teams with 5 votes apiece, we have our final team... Welcome to the Memphis Mallards!! The Mallards will play at Liberty Bowl Stadium and join a nicely clustered Southern division, with bus trips to New Orleans, Birmingham, and Texas. I will have their uniforms ready tonight (sorry, did not get to work on this at home last night). For now, here is our lineup for the 16-team AAFL. WEST: San Diego Destroyers, Salt Lake Pioneers, California Rush, and Portland Chinook. SOUTH: Birmingham Vulcans, Memphis Mallards, Houston Apollos, and New Orleans Crawdads NORTH: St. Louis Rampage, Chicago Sting, Columbus Silverbacks, and Detroit Red Devils. EAST: Boston Clovers, New Jersey Rockers, Washington Wolves, and Orlando Juice. I will also provide some of the unique identities for other cities that were not selected, including Miami, Nashville, San Antonio, Dallas, and Philadelphia.

And here we go, the 16th team will be in Memphis, but who will they be? What colors will they wear? The choice is yours. We have 4 contenders and voting is now open. MEMPHIS BLUES The sound of Beale Street is the muse for this identity. Clad in silver, black, and royal blue, the Memphis Blues feature a stylized "M" monogram made of three musical notes, a center stripe made up on 6 guitar strings and a series of frets. Will the Blues join the Rockers as musically-themed AAFL squads? MEMPHIS KINGS Oh, Man, Oh, Man. You knew there had to be a tribute to the King somewhere in here, and we delivered it. Brought back after initially failing as a concept idea in St. Louis. Will it be better received in Memphis? And does that king look a lot like a certain early rocker? Thank you, thank you very much. MEMPHIS PHARAOHS Named for the city in Egypt, Memphis's Mississippi is the Nile of the Americas, and the Memphis team wants to rule it all. The Pharaohs would become the only team in the AAFL with a yellow helmet, theirs adorned with the team's main logo, a center stripe in black and bright blue, and, what is that? A scarab to hold the players' numbers. MEMPHIS MALLARDS If you have ever been to Memphis, you have probably seen the famous ducks of the Peabody Hotel making their way back and forth between the main floor fountain and their rooftop home. If you have been outside of the city and along the river, you likely have also seen quite a few of these feisty mallards as well. No league is complete without at least 1 bird-based team, and Memphis wants to do it in style with a combination of bright kelly green, deep navy blue, and sharp orange. Four very different looks. Four different touchpoints to the city. Which will be the one that fills out the AAFL roster of teams? Start voting now, we run for 2 days or until 1 design takes a commanding lead.

We do have a winner! With a late-breaking 4-vote lead, the final team in the AAFL will be in Memphis, Tennessee!!! I will be posting the 4 identity options for the 16th and final AAFL club in just a short while, but in the meantime, Here are two designs from the city that almost, almost made it into the league but is now the odd city out. THE SAN ANTONIO SQUADRON: This one, which I have used before, could also have been Air Force Blue with sky blue and silver, especially since we have more black now in the league. THE SAN ANTONIO TOROS: Another red, black and grey design, so I am kinda glad this one did not make it, even though I like how the horns turned out. The other two San Antonio designs would have been the Copperheads, with the unique copper, dark green, and red combo; and the San Antonio Suns with the dark magenta and metallic gold colors and the Aztec sun dial logo.

Too bad the folks who want a team in Texas have not coordinated a bit more. They could have walked away with it by now, but the Dallas/San Antonio divide has them trailing Memphis.

OK, Here is our morning tally, all teams below the line are eliminated and those who voted for them can now recast a vote for a team above the line. 8 Memphis 7 San Antonio 5 Dallas 4 Miami 3 Philadelphia ____________________ 2 Carolina 1 Louisville, Atlanta, Hartford The poll will close today at 5pm MT and I will decide if it ends in a tie.

Thanks for the great chart @ManillaToad. And now, the 2nd of 3 new looks for 2013, yet to be revealed on the Alt History website, so you get it first. MICHIGAN PANTHERS 2013 A lot of traditional Panther elements, but with more of an emphasis on the newer 2nd logo, with its block progression motif. That is really obvious on both the pant stripe and the side panel of the jerseys. I am personally not a big fan of side panel striping. It sometimes works, but often does not, but it is something we have seen a lot in the past 15 years, so I include it here. The other big element is the use of champagne sleeves on the white jersey. Finally, yes, the new Michigan font is set up on an angle, rising from right to left (for the viewer it is left to right).

Afternoon check-in. We are above the 15 vote threshold, but it is still a wide open race: 5 Dallas 4 San Antonio 2 Miami, Memphis, Carolina 1 Hartford, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Texas, Louisville Still too early to call or even to eliminate any cities.

Early vote with 9 votes in and no frontrunner yet. 2 Memphis 1 Carolina, Hartford, Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Texas, and San Antonio. It could take time to start whittling away at this list and getting to 2-3 legitimate contenders.

And here are YOUR DETROIT RED DEVILS!!!

Wow, the overnight ballots came in hard for the Red Devils. I call this a major upset. One of the most simplistic designs I have done and it wins quickly. So, Congratulations to the Detroit Red Devils!!! They will take the field in Ypsilanti in 2033. I will have their uniforms up and ready ASAP, but for now we will get to the final vote. We have a pretty wide range of cities that could compete for the final spot in the AAFL's 16 team roster. Here are the contenders: EAST-- Selecting either of these two means Orlando jumps to the Southern Division Philadelphia: 7th largest metro area, team to play in Franklin Field Virginia (Norfolk/Va Beach): 37th largest metro area, team to play at ODU's SB Ballard Stadium Hartford: 50th largest metro area, team to play at Rentschler Field SOUTH-- Selecting one of these teams keeps Orlando in the East with NJ, BOS, and DC Dallas: 4th largest metro area, team to play at Choctaw Stadium Atlanta: 8th largest metro area, team to play at Georgia State Stadium Miami: 9th largest metro area, team to play at FIU Stadium San Antonio: 25th largest metro area, team to play at Alamo Stadium Austin: 27th largest metro area, team to play at Q2 Stadium Texas: Combines portion of SA and AUS, team to play at Bobcat Stadium Nashville: 35th largest metro area, team to play at Geodis Park Carolina (R-Durham): 41st largest metro area, team to play at Wallace Wade Stadium Louisville; 43rd largest metro area, team to play at U. of Louisville Memphis: 44th largest metro area, team to play at Liberty Bowl Stadium Just in case it factors into your thinking, the AAFL currently has teams in 7 NFL cities and 8 non-NFL cities. There is no pressure to go either way as the TV networks are very happy with having the #1, #3, #6, #7, #12, #15, and #20 markets as big draws, allowing for smaller markets.

I would probably have to force a lot of things that I generally have tried not to force to get a dynasty. It seems like the simulator does like to mix things up and I try not to interfere with the game results it spits out. I consider the early Stars and Gamblers to be mini-dynasties, as were the 2002-2003 Ohio Glory, but so far we have not had a team that has won more than 2 titles in any 5 year span. I will say that there have been teams that made the playoffs for 10 years in a row, but often they fell apart in the postseason almost every year. New Orleans and Chicago have both had runs like that without ever winning a title.

This vote is more competitive than I expected. As I check it tonight, we find the following breakdown with all 4 names still viable: 5 Wildcats & Red Devils 4 Speed Demons 2 Muscle Have to admit, I expected either Muscle or Speed Demons to run away with this one as the other two are pretty basic, but maybe folks like the basic elements and the color schemes. Voting continues.

With a 16-9 margin, I declare we have a winner. Welcome the Motor City to the AAFL!! A natural rival for both Columbus and Chicago, Detroit's new club will join those two and St. Louis in the Central Division. They will play outside of city limits at EMU's Rynearson Field in Ypsalanti, only a 35 miles from downtown Detroit. So now it is time for our penultimate identity vote. Four very different choices, linking themselves with the motor industry, car culture, and two other popular Detroit teams, we have a tough choice. Voting will use the standard format, so get those votes in and we will have our Detroit club within 2 days. Here are your options: DETROIT WILDCATS In the city that is, or has been, home to the Lions, Tigers, and Panthers, how could we not offer a cat-themed option. The Wildcats combine a snarling cat with a clawmark stripe to join the tradition of Detroit as a cat-loving city. The colors are a light navy blue and a buff gold, more satiny than metallic. DETROIT RED DEVILS Taking a page out of the identity book of the beloved Detoit Red Wings, the Red Devils combine the simple red and white color scheme of Detroit's hockey club, with a nickname and design that evokes the city's long history with "Devil's Night", the night before Halloween. The logo is simple, a stylized capital D complete with two short devil horns. The helmet also displays a pitchfork, using the familiar symbol of the demonic as teh helmet center stripe. DETROIT MUSCLE Taking inspiration (for the name though not really the logo from Matt Curley's design-- Dribble), the Detroit Muscle celebrates the power, speed, and just coof factor of muscle car culture. The logo depicts a classic muscle car in front view, looking a bit like Stephen King's haunted "Christine". Contained within a chrome silver and black rondel and using a 1950's inspired font, the Muscle is headed right for you in glorious satiny cherry red. DETROIT SPEED DEMONS Car culture, and the love of speed and power are at the heart of the fourth identity presented today. The Speed Demons are all about the thrill of acceleration and racing. The logo depicts a haunted racer, flying down the road with its spirit guide hovering above. The team colors of black, orange, and grey provide a unique mix of asphalt and flame. The helmet's center stripe could not e anything but the checkered flag that denotes victory to the fastest racer. This is a club that will be about speed, determination, and gunning it until the final whislt. There it is, four options for the AAFL Detroit franchise. Do you go with pure speed, pure muscle, fiery danger, or a classic Detroit big cat? The choice is yours, let's see where this goes. Voting is now open.

Checking in and we are very close to the Motor City getting a franchise. 12 Detroit 9 Philadelphia 6 Atlanta 4 Dallas Dallas and Atlanta are both eliminated because both are 5 or more votes behind Detroit (and Philly) so those of you who have voted for those two Southern cities can now recast votes for the 2 finalists, Detroit and Philly. I will check back in a few hours and if one of the two has a 4 vote lead they will be the winner. Here is what that means for the 16th team: PHILADELPHIA WIN: Orlando moves to the Southern Division Dallas, Atlanta, San Antonio, Miami, Carolina, and Virginia are out. The only remaining cities for team 16 are Memphis, Nashville, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Buffalo. DETROIT WIN Buffalo, Cincinnati eliminated. The remaining open spot is in the South, but Philly can still be team #16, which moves Orlando to fill that last spot. Philadelphia, Memphis, Nashville, Dallas, Atlanta, San Antonio, Miami, Carolina, and Virginia are in the vote for team #16 And, just to add some more intrigue, here are the 4 potential color combos for both Detroit and Philadelphia: DET 1: Cherry Red, Black, Silver DET 2: Redwing Red & White DET 3: Dark Royal Blue & Athletic Gold (Yellow) DET 4: Black, Orange, and Grey PHILA 1: Metallic Gold and Navy PHILA 2: Navy and Grey PHILA 3: Metallic Gold and Sky Blue PHILA 4; Navy, Red, Orange, Yellow

How about this? Does not have appearances, only wins. And, since you asked, here are the all time records: TEAM (Seaons in the league: All Time Summer Bowl Record) ARIZONA (29: 0-2) BALTIMORE (29: 0-1) Began as Chicago Blitz. BIRMINGHAM (29: 1-1 ) DENVER (29: 1-4) MICHIGAN (29: 3-0) NASHVILLE (29: 0-0) Began as LA Express. NEW JERSEY (29: 3-0) NEW ORLEANS (29: 0-1) OAKLAND (29: 1-1) PHILADELPHIA (29: 3-3) TAMPA BAY (29: 3-1) WASHINGTON (29: 2-0) HOUSTON (28: 4-3) JACKSONVILLE (28: 0-0) MEMPHIS (28: 2-3) PITTSBURGH (28: 1-2) CHICAGO (25: 0-3) ORLANDO (25: 1-1) TEXAS (25: 0-0 ) Began as Oklahoma Outlaws & San Antonio Gunslingers--merged after 1 year.. LAS VEGAS (28: 0-1) Began as Portland Thunder BOSTON (16: 1-0 ) Began as 1995 Atlanta Fire LOS ANGELES (16: 0-1) 1995 Expanion Express OHIO (16: 2-0 ) SEATTLE (16: 1-0 ) ATLANTA (6: 0-0 ) CHARLOTTE (6: 0-0 ) PORTLAND (6: 0-0 ) ST. LOUIS (6: 0-0 ) So, Houston has both the most appearances (7) and the most wins (4), while New Jersey and Michigan each have 3 wins in 3 appearances and Nashville (STL, LA Express) are the only founding franchise never to appear in a title game.

Current count: 9 Detroit 8 Philadelphia 6 Atlanta 4 Dallas Not dropping any of them out, but Dallas is close unless they get a comeback.