NativeSonX

Speed Demons

I'm not so easily seduced by a "cool" sounding name, it must have a deeper significance than what we already have seen. I actually think the Rush and Condors lack originality and creativity. It's fools gold to endorse either. They both are "been there done that" type of monikers. Its's like group think spills over once people see one option get an early lead, it's like choosing which shade of off-white looks good on a bride of dubious morals. Akin to choosing which bland flavor of vanilla [French vanilla or vanilla bean (the varietal matters, like wine grapes)] or chicken breast to consume mindlessly? Being actually from the area in question (spending time in both San Jose and Sacramento), I think the Dons are undersold (surely, the helmet reveal is pretty underwhelming, depressing considerations.) with a less impressive back story of Zorro (Also, it lacks some sophistication when its proclaimed Dons established established the Mission system in California? The Spanish Empire and Franciscan order of Catholic priests established the California Missions and El Camino Real that connected them. So the Church, Spanish government/military and conscripted Ingenious laborers built the Mission System, not land owners gifted from the Crown. Concocting an inaccurate story does no justice to the historic reality. That's the cost of rushing into things, factual errors, exposing gaps in knowledge, and a lack of respect of history. It may be an "honest" mistake, but it smacks of careless cultural appropriation.) However, to me the Dons feel the most appropriate as it hearkens back to the bygone era of football past, when the Los Angeles Dons, California's first professional football franchise began in the original AAFC, only to be supplanted by the NFL's Rams moving into the area from Cleveland. The Rams won that battle for the City of Angeles and the AAFC's Dons were tossed into the dustbin of history, not able to compete with Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers (both eventually merged into the NFL) in their lone 1946 season. Ironically, they were a red, white and blue color scheme. BTW @TrueYankee26 Dons are not remotely bullfighting matadors, they were gentry given land grants in Alta California from the Spanish crown. The actual college football link would have been the University of San Francisco Dons. The 1951 team had future Hall of Famers Gino Marchetti, Ollie Matson, and Bob St. Clair. They ended undefeated but could not accept bowl bids from the Sugar, Orange and Gator Bowls, due to financial constraints and the condition their black players were not allowed to play (Matson and Burl Toler). USF dropped their football program in 1982, so the Dons professional outfit would have no modern namesake in California. From the colonialization of California (Alta and Baja) by the Europeans, name Iberians from Spain, Dons actually have an instrumental history that extends before and after the gold rush spurred by aurum's discovery in Sutter's Mill and California's statehood. Spanish Dons transplanted from Mexico ran sprawling haciendas that transformed nascent San Jose into the Valley of the Heart's Delight and the Central Valley and southwards where large parcels of land were used for ranchos (pasturelands for livestock grazing and eventually establishing their direct namesakes in modern California like: Napa, Ojai, Paso Robles, Temecula, Milpitas, El Cajon, San Bernardino, Los Feliz, San Leandro, El Sobrante, La Habra, Los Alamitos, etc. Many other rancheros are memorialized by High School names (Rancho Buena Vista, Alcalanes, Santa Teresa, Rancho Bernardo) and famous streets (La Brea, La Cienega, Sepulveda) throughout California. Their vision, efforts and ability to plant the seeds of change and transform this sprawling state into the economic powerhouse it is today (5th largest economy behind the US, China, Japan, Germany). Their influence is inextricable to the history of the Golden State. As a resident of San Jose of nearly two decades and life-long Californian, I implore the good citizens of this community to reconsider their vote and support the Dons. I fear we end up with another counterfeit-49ers (akin to the CFL's Sacramento Gold Miners) of the AAFL.

Chicago Blues.

The Chicago Blues... wonder if its a different angle than just the musical connection. Windy City, Second City = 10th AAFL Franchise. Fits a geographical need and gives a big DMA to satisfy advertisers and TV executives.

@WideRight if you had an updated league map, it may help visualize which cities slot naturally for the next choice. Without it, I think will focus on the west with the mid-major #10 candidacy for Sacramento, because it's an adequate half-way point between San Diego (504 miles) and Portland (579 miles). The West covers a lot of territory, so having a Sacramento also helps Salt Lake be less isolated (649 miles), compared to SLC-SD (753 miles) or SLC-PDX (766 miles). The big negative would be Fred Anderson Field at Hornet Stadium, it's just not ready for prime time. If the MLS had accepted Sacramento franchise bid and built a new stadium at the proposed Railyards site, you would get 21,000 all-seater instead of an antiquated venue with mostly bleacher seats at Hornet Stadium. Sacramento v. San Diego isn't San Fran (ohhh locals hate that) vs LA, but it does have the potential for a good rivalry in the making. Houston is destined to end up in the Central division when the AAFL expands to 12, so their stay in the West may end after two seasons. San Antonio only helps lessen travel for Houston and New Orleans, but would complicate who ends up as team #4 in the West when the league expands to 12. Plus Alamo Stadium is a lot worse than Hornet Stadium, remembering what I do of the USFL's Gunslingers playing there in 1984-1985. I'm sure it's better now, but this is how Alamo Stadium was remembered during in the USFL: "The team remained competitive despite Alamo Stadium's poor playing conditions. The locker rooms were cramped and had no air conditioning. The playing surface was an extremely thin AstroTurf carpet atop a concrete slab, resulting in numerous knee injuries. Many players came down with skin infections because Manges (Gunslingers owner) was unwilling to pay to keep the field clean. The field was painted with industrial-grade paint that dried hard. Combined with the thin surface, this turned rug burns usually common on artificial surfaces into severe rashes and scabs in San Antonio." On that note, Austin would have the best venue situation with Q2 stadium with access to public transit (commuter rail and bus lines available) makes it a more attractive alternative of AAFL's #2 Texas franchise. A future Western Division with San Diego, Portland, Salt Lake and Sacramento seems like a more natural divisional footprint, instead of making the hard choice of sending Houston or San Antonio, but not both and requiring splitting up of the AAFL's Texas duo, to join SD-PDX-SLC when the AAFL goes to 12 teams without Sacramento. San Antonio is further west than Houston (#7 DMA), but the west would be without a top 10 DMA. A future Western Division with SD-PDX-SLC-SA is bit weaker combine DMA coverage than what the AAF had in 2019 with AZ-SA-SD-SLC, and they learned it wasn't the right mix of big and mid-markets to keep the league alive. Then again either Sacramento (#20 DMA) or San Antonio (#31 DMA) still need to overcome Chicago's (#3 DMA) overall popularity in the next round to even make these possible Western Division alignments a reality, indicating they have a tough hill to climb.

The threshold has been lowered to three vote lead to call the race from a 4 vote lead to achieve an artificial plurality? Maybe there should be rank-choice voting to achieve an actual consensus pick? What's the rush, it's not like there is a submission deadline for an actual paid project. I'm just curious if you thought just letting everyone vote via the polls only section like this example: IFL Expansion Teams, (the poll from the corresponding classic CCSLC HOF project) That way the tally is done for you and closes at the date/time you specify and you get lot more individuals engaged in the voting process, and we can get an actual horse race (e.g., Juice v. Snowbirds) instead of getting the feeling someone is putting their thumb on the scale when suggesting the current leader pull ahead. (current example whipping the votes for Chicago) It's more of a beauty contest masquerading as an unbiased participatory democracy. You can still stoke the community's interest without tipping the scales.

As much as I wanted to vote for Atlanta before for travel purposes, Detroit makes better sense this time around because of its proximity to existing Eastern franchises in St. Louis (519 miles), DC (526 miles) and Boston (742 miles) and filling a need on the map for a team in the Upper Midwest. I figure the Crawdads will move West, which gives them a better chance to foster a divisional rivalry with the Apollos, however the rest of the West is more difficult, likely to add to New Orleans travel costs.

Clovers - Crimson and Clover, over and over... DC (ok its actually maroon but close enough) vs Boston a rivalry separated by a 457 mile trip on the ACELA gives fans Beer Snakes vs Beantown, Foggy Bottom v Boston Common, The District v Cradle of Liberty. I would have preferred Atlanta for making travelling within the existing Eastern franchises easier as the closest road trip for 3 of the 4 existing teams, but Boston's identities are very well done. The Clovers has potential to drift international back to Dublin if need be? If the CFFL can flip 6 franchises (5 to Europe and 1 to Canada) anything is possible right? Ask the owner of the 10 time champion Toronto Tundra why... This fantasy league had suddenly relocated Louisville, Kansas, Oakland, Hartford, Orlando, Charlotte and Memphis for Aberdeen, Athens, Berlin, London, Stockholm, Toronto and Zagreb in the span of two seasons. @WideRight has at least been open to European markets once in a Bills blue moon.

New York/New Jersey

Most won't read this, but that's ok. I needed to say my peace as why it's important to have an opinion and defend your choice. Hate is strong word and your perception of my motivations to shed light on inconsistencies for this snowbird design choice isn't rooted in reality. I merely illustrated the actual species that have historically been associated with the name "snowbird" and even suggested an alternative waterfowl that may be more appropriate for the design. Ornithology isn't my jam, but in the pursuit of formulating ideas where the author appropriate aviary tropes, they still has some tacit obligation do their due diligence to accurately depict their subject matter. You can't call something white for sake of artistic license, if everybody sees it as black, as you can't convince us the scientific data is wrong that a small bird should depicted with much larger wingspan? In the world of board games (which I have much more familiarity), if subject matter delves into unfamiliar culture and history, designers employ cultural consultants to get the facts right, because no one wants to play something that promotes gross historical inaccuracies and is deemed offensive to people they are commemorating. Your project suffers if you don't consider all the viewpoints of the history you are simulating. Proper cultural consultation allows the game designers, illustrators, graphic designers the boundaries to where their visual language can go and provides iconography and imagery that reflects a sufficient level of historical accuracy. Yes sports logo and uniform design won't be mistaken as high art, in fact it might be considered déclassé or tacky, but even tacky offers a window to who we are and what we value. Maybe it isn't worthy of elevated intellectual discourse but it does require us to make informed choices. Maybe I'm not your typical beer and pretzels sports addict, and would rather play the influence game. That being presenting viewpoints to articulate why the choice I am advocating has merit and should be considered by others. However, some of you would rather play it safe and don't have any real conviction on devising a way for influencing the direction of this project, as the heart wants what it wants. I guess for many, the investment in advocating your choice is not a valued, rooted to a male-centric core audience that is satisfied just seeing their votes counted, not needing explain why that choice is sound and should be considered by others. Hence there is a gravity towards certain choices that feel too familiar and too over-done, most likely rooted in the notions of projecting traditional tropes of masculinity, which results in alienating other creative aspects of alternate design choices. There is a drive to go with expediency to get to the next reveal instead of thoughtful discourse that allows for this deliberative body to find full consensus. I appreciate that some would engage in actual banter, and open your minds to different angles on how to make these thoughtful decisions. However, I mostly see no sentence or one sentence efforts that show how shallow a perspective respondents base there decisions. By any means I not a politician, but I know how words matter and make a difference. I do my due diligence beyond what most are capable or willing to do, because this experiment of design democracy is important, not because I have some unhealthy desire to destroy one choice, but because the project originator tasks us to make informed decisions to help him create a fully collaborative project. I did research what comes up for snowbird and the reality didn't match what we may be thinking it means (outside of the double entendre for retirees). Do I love the love the choice of the Juice? Not really, I even suggested playful alternatives (Sunrise, Mimosas) because even Juice is too safe on its own. Do I hate the moniker Snowbirds? No, but we have already seen where this design has went in @WideRight CFL project, so I would rather not rehash something that has already had its sunshine on these boards. I even wasn't originally wasn't onboard of choosing Orlando over Miami or NY/NJ (which I had previously lobbied for), and gave my reasons why. People are so happy just to vote and not even give their actual two cents to why its a good choice, that's their prerogative, but racing to see the next reveal, leaves us missing out on what can possibly emerge when everyone has their choice recorded and the final votes are cast. Maybe I have failed to foster a environment to allow for a greater level of discussion, and maybe that is for the better. But the longer we talk about our choice actually helps the designer make better choices in what he ultimately presents, because we give him the gift of time. Surely, we would rather him make thoughtful choices based on our suggestions and present the best product possible. This a forum to exchange ideas and provide some well-meaning constructive criticism to allow the artist the best possible runway for their ideas to take flight. If I torpedoed the Juice's chances to be the moniker for AAFL 2.0 (or is this the 3rd iteration?) then I am at peace with the Snowbirds being the ultimate choice. At least I got to say my peace, for better or worse. @WideRight Ka-Kaw? I thought you were a USFL guy? That is a sacrilege on the highest order. The blue egg on the back of the Breakers on-hiatus helmet is breaking in disappointment. The shores of Lake Pontchartrain will remain in quiet protest, until this injustice finds full remediation.

Here's a real life "snowbird" aka the Dark-Eyed Junco. Biologist Carl Linnaeus (father of modern taxonomy) had classified this little guy as Fringilla hyemalis, or "winter finch" from a description taken by British naturalist Mark Catesby who first labeled this species as the snow-bird in his treatise, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1731) In reality the wingspan of the Dark-Eyed Junco is a mere 23cm, so not quite as big as the bird portrayed here, who by any account looks like some large bird of prey: The reality is these small birds really don't have the requisite white wings to cover a helmet. Of the six or seven sub-species, none have a completely white wing: I'm no birder but, that dog won't hunt. We might be better off with the Snowy Egret, who is at home in Florida year-round and has large wingspan of 104cm making it the predatory big bird needed for @WideRight concept. Those wings are definitely white. I truly appreciate all his efforts in giving us viable options to vote and debate about, but if there was a tie, I figure we can compromise and have snowbird served in orange sauce aka a blending of both choices? It must be akin to having orange chicken or chicken with orange peel? I heard they maybe even tastier over a steaming bed of white rice, however we might need a dozen real-life snowbirds to make a single serving... that's a lot of tiny wings!

Might as well merge the CFL project to this one since Portland and Orlando franchises seem to be migrating to the AAFL. We can prevent this by saying NO to Snowbirds. We already have Chinooks, Crawdads, Wolves, Rampage (Rhinos) and now you want some fair-weather birds? What are we running here a petting or a football league? You need a little fruity lubrication to go with all this protein. A moratorium to a fowl choice, and affirm a tangy beverage to start your Football Morning! Juice, Juice, JUICE!!! Brought to you by the FCC (Florida Citrus Council). And what's more loveable than a human in over-sized orange?

The 'Squatch just didn't go well with the whole Salt Lake City, home of the Jazz... but I guess it could be worse if the 'Squatch ended up Central Florida... It could be something akin to this? The ultimate creamsicle mashup...

@WideRight oddly enough the creamsicles feel like a natural fit for any Florida franchise. I'm curious which direction you truly go if there's enough juice in the tank... however I think the double-entendre of rebranding them the Orlando (tequila) Sunrise... gives it a more daring flavor of of cumulative Spring Break experiences and leave the 'birds stuck on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon line. What better way to start the day with a little OJ and your favorite adult libation... at least that is what my friends tell me...

@WideRight kind of went international when he did his CFL Project (back in 2020) adding American franchises to the frozen North. However, it's been done before. The classic example of this would have been the International Football League: Version 3.0 by @Julius Seizure. The league started with 11 teams in North America (US, Canada, Mexico) plus Tokyo and expanded across Europe and Asia with following franchise footprint: America West: Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Vancouver America East: Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Orlando Europe: London, Moscow, Munich, Rome Asia: Beijing, Mumbai, Seoul, Tokyo Few others have tried, but this IFL project exemplifies a laser focus on creating a compact international league, and later be refined and evolved further off this message board into World Gridiron, presenting a strong vision of realizing the dream of globalizing American Football beyond our shores (well at least the uniforms and lids). That's why I promoted both Hawai'i and Miami as AAFL cities, to set the table for expansion beyond the USA. however SLC and Orlando were popular enough to thwart any pipe dream to take AAFL intercontinental. He's consistent in pumping out new content on the Football side of things, so you never know if he can create his own international vision someday? Maybe something more interesting than lamenting the uniform designs of the UFL 2.0 will emerge from his imagination this spring.