tBBP

Speaking of teams in sell mode... The Bears have now traded Roquan Smith. Chicago gets whole second and fifth round picks in return. Heckuva way to clear the books, Chicago. On the other side, Baltimore better be taking a GOOD look at theirs for next season if they intend to keep Smith...

Ain't much changed...still mostly that.

That's my main curiosity with all of those...

Okay, so...having taken some of this in: *INHALES LIKE ACE VENTURA* I'm quite curious to see the creative brief on this project...just to gain some idea of the bounds and/or restrictions placed on the directive. All of this is of course purely soeculative, but I think I can already identify at least one possible: "each team must have a direct or implied letter lockup (monogram) mark, be it primary or secondary". I can't quite make or any other possible ones, other than "all the identities must be refreshed in some way" (with the exception of the all-new San Antonio identity). I point this out because [for those who've yet to engage in the professional designer/client transaction] these are the kinds of things that can happen, and the more restrictive (or insistent) the client--in this case, Dwayne Johnson/Dany Garcia/the XFL or some combination of such--the more it can inhibit the creative process...but that's a challenge most designers have faced at some point or another, some several times over. Some clients may give the designers they hire carte blanche on a project...but clearly this wasn't one of those times. All that said...something else strikes me as strange about all this. IIRC, didn't Joe Bosack handle the previous go-round of XFL identities? (I see a lot of his signature trademark illustration style in those.) If so--and even if not--I wonder if whoever they used for this go-round to alter/edit from the previous ones. (If the league owns the IP, they most certainly are within their rights to do so.) With all of that said... I thought so too at first...but in both the form and orientation of that trident I can clearly see an implied "D". Whether it was intentionally for "Seattle Dragons" before they added the "Sea" or intentionally for "Sea Dragons", it works either way...and is among the strongest of the new marks in terms of execution. I know people love to remark, many times sarcastically, that some works may have only had such-and-such amount of time put into it, but I can tell you this: with the scale on which this stuff will be used, I can promise you they put a lot of time into it. That in no way defends the outcome of the final product, but just knowing a little something about the process from concept to completion, the (probably tens if not 20s) of rounds of revisions, color matching (if they thought that far) across digital, print and textile media--and we haven't even gotten to the uniforms yet--then yeah, they probably did put a whole lot of time into all this. (Of course, "a lot" is also subjective, relative to one's own experience or lack thereof.) @Brian in Boston already hit on it, BUT...since you asked, which also prompted me really think about it, then I'd say the Jets, though a/that's not saying much and b/ I surprised myself by even mentioning them in this light. Reference the above...that, said, it's no easy feat taking a complex and/or abstract idea and reducing it into something that simple. I like the concept...but I definitely ain't feeling the final execution. At all. Don't know. As I mentioned earlier, I think Joe Bosack handled the previous iteration of the league's branding. It wouldn't totally shock me though if the XFL 3.0 hired someone else this go-round to update/recreate these identities...which then worldly have entailed essentially "denaturing" the previous work. (Except for Houston...that update is *chef's kiss*.) Again, reference all of the above. To that, add this: time costs $. Designers' talents/skill levels/experience being whatever they/it may be, the one thing smart/shrewd businesspeople know to charge well for is time.

I'd say he could walk straight to Jacksonville...but then Baalke would just turn around and sell trade him to some hot contender for a conditional fifth-rounder and two toothpicks. Speaking of which...how bad do the Jaguars suck now?? That was a cute little tease they put on, having folk think they were gonna do something this season. I mean mathematically they still could...but they just lost to the dangone Broncos...after going up early...again...

And thus my envy. One of these days, though! (Glad you're getting to enjoy all that, by the way.)

Not necessarily, at least not stylistically. Now their across-the-river brethren Wild, on the other hand...that's the one to watch out for, if the Twins are indeed going that route, considering the Wild have already worked elements of the cosmos into their current branding...

Outcome of the game gon' be what it is...I'm talking about two of the absolute best (if not THE best) tailgate fanbases and atmospheres chopping it up...I've never actually been TO the Bills stadium, but I've been close. One of these days I'll catch a tailgate and a game there...it's on my list. (So too is Lambeau on game day.)

I envy the mess out of you right now...

So now that two of you have basically said the same thing: If any of this is indeed true, then it may confirm a sneaking suspicion I've had about the Twins' new branding ever since I first heard about it: they're going for more of a "cosmic" theme, specifically Gemini (aka The--wait for it--Twins), despite the fact that their across-the-ricef brethren in green have already incorporated elements of that into their identity. Now, for optimists sake, I'll allow for the possibility that if they keep the cosmic details toned down enough, this may turn out halfway decent. (And I won't lie: I once sat and brainstormed about a Twins identity based around Gemini.) However, if they are indeed going this way and try to overdo it, I don't see it turning out good at all. (And now that I think about this...perhaps this all lends some credence to the rumors of a brighter blue being included next go-round...)

I swear u keep forgetting Gina Lawson was on that team. She, Yolanda Griffith and Tich Penicheiro...man they had the squad back then. Good times in Sacramento basketball history. And yes, that was also a good use of red with purple...

Here's a good example of applications of color theory. I've often thought of this arrangement in my head, so thanks for actually putting it into pixels. That said, the effect of the gold is what I wanna pull attention to: you see how it kinda blends into the white and causes sort of a "comic book" effect on the white pants? Well the exact opposite occurs on the purple pants: it just pops off, but not in the good kind of way. I think part of it deals with the large center white stripe...black and purple are very close on the spectrum: black and white are completely opposite. It may work better to put the gold in between the white and black stripes...it wouldn't be in the same color order as on the white pants, but let this serve as an example of why 1:1 stripe (or whatever other color trim) applications don't always work out for the best. Okay, so y'all know how I said the Chargers' uniform sets might be the best in the league? I also might've lied...THOSE might be the best in the league. Orange/brown/orange/brown, orange/white/orange/white...if the Browns kept it to those combos, it absolutely WOULD be the best in the league, no question. (And then LA might be right behind it at #2...if they would just 86 the navy alternates. Totally unnecessary.) I've often thought of this, especially in light of what TCU has been doing, but then I mocked it up several times on my computer and...yeah, the gold works way better, as sort of a "highlight" to the "dark goth" look of black and purple. Well, here's my counterargument... I always thought those were one of the best NBA sets of its time; they'd also look right at home in the landscape of today's NBA. (Doggone it Toronto...why'd you have to ditch those???) Also, if we wanna keep it football, I doubt most of you remember or ever knew of the Florida Firecats of the long-since-defunct AF2, but purple/red was their colorway as well... Photos of their first year or two on the felt are hard to come by, but the more recent ones are out there. Google them at your own risk...and beware of a little Milwaukee Breweresque flashback shock if you do...

At the risk of spinning this tangent a way that probably shouldn't be spun, yet at the same time is germane to your point and the point preceding it: I get it. I've also been there. My divorce was finalized two months ago...finally. And so what I say next I speak from experience... ...No doubt in the world that both Brady and Gisele were dealing with a metric crap ton of pain trying to wade through all the murky waters of the divorce process. Both probably still are dealing with some of the pain post-divorce (I wasn't aware they'd already finalized it). And although mine obviously didn't play out in the public, I can identify with the way dude felt. And you're right, DJ: we men, when things in our lives are collapsing all around us, definitely do tend to throw ourselves into our work, whatever that may be. I did it too...at the time it was all I could do to keep from losing my ever-loving mind. (That was three years ago.) That said, if y'all look at what Gisele said in that article linked above, she made it clear that she wanted Brady home more with the kids, so let's park it there for a minute. I'm sure there are those who would say Gisele should have known what she was getting herself into by marrying a professional athlete, let alone the starting QB of a perennial SB contender. Yet, she and Brady fell in love (I presume) & tied the knot. Sometime down the line, four kids showed up. And now here he are, he's still playing, Gisele (I'm gonna guess) having been stuck with the majority of the burden of childbearing at home while still also pursuing her own career--that one thing right there probably burned her out more than anything else; whatever other issues may have arisen as a result probably compounded it. And so here's where more guys might wanna learn to put themselves in the shoes and the mind of a woman, particularly the mother of his children (and mind you, this next part pertains only to those women who are actually ambitious enough to go after what they desire in their career): She sees Brady out there working, succeeding, advancing his career. He's focused, he's determined, he's wanting it, he's getting it. Those of us focused guys knows that that feels like. Now imagine that Gisele had the same desires for her own career--except the time and energy devoted to running a household and raising children is less time she can devote to her own goals and interests. Compound that over years and years and you can see how small seeds turn into big weeds. It's possible her sacrifice turned into frustration, frustration that built over the years...and one thing I can tell you is that the phase of frustration is where the heart change, if one happens, occurs. That Brady let it be known he wanted to play til 45 I'm sure did neither of them any favors. So yeah, big house, mansion yacht, both of them with individual net worths that together could finance the national debt...yet all of that couldn't replace or fix what was already broken, because of seeds planted so early on. All these many years later, here we are. (There's more I can add to this impromptu TED talk but I'll save that for a forum in the lounge somewhere.) Okay--I now return you to your regularly scheduled football season rants, raves and musings...

It's what happens when your ego serves your own glory for too long. Had Brady stayed retired this past offseason, I don't think anyone would have held last season against him, even though Tampa didn't make the SB. BUTTT....he had to get back out there and, well...this is what happens when your ego serves your own glory for too long. As for Rodgers, same thing (minus the retiring/unretiring drama--he created his own drama though), and I'll even add that we're seeing full bloom what we may have seen evidence of going back to the day he was drafted, sitting there with that pouty face. For some reason that keeps coming up in my mind more and more when I see him/the Packers this season (which is more than I need to since I live in the NFC North TV market region). I'm sure there's something to that... ...So the moral of the story, kids, is you either retire young(ish) a hero...or your ego serves your own glory long enough to see yourself become the villain.

The Panthers are an interesting case: their uniform is both traditional and modern at the same time. Now with the shrinking size of shoulder pads (and thus jersey real estate) those tapered shoulder loops really don't taper like they're supposed to, but I'd say that's an integral part of their look along with the tapered pants stripes--both in their signature Carolina [Panthers] blue--and moving away from that may just turn them into any other team any other where. I don't know that they need an overall as much as they could use a soft refresh and/or clean-up. As for emphasizing blue over black: if they do that, they'd essentially turn into the Lions at that point...plus that blue has more impact against a black background. They're a tough one to try to "modernize"--well, without going off the rails with it anyway (or dialing it down to -5 like the Jags did five [!] years ago). Faling all that, I guess for now their best bet is to keep what they have--but either get rid of the TV numbers entirely or replace the panther head logos on the sleeve caps with those numbers. Having both on there with the boulevard-wide collars those Nike jerseys have is just too much. Then again...the Florida Tuskers figured out something, so I think something like this could work for Carolina (though they'd have to be very careful how they go about it): Of course, the the problem with going with that shell color (which I definitely wouldn't be opposed to) is thsg their current logo wasn't really designed for it, so it would need to be reworked (which it needs to anyway, because currently the cat looks like it's on its last sniff of PCP).

I definitely don't like the current Dolphins uniforms (or shade of aqua) better than the 1972 throwbacks; I do, however, favor the Marks Brothers set (aka the 80s-early '90s, because I can't think of a better name for them) over the 1972 throwbacks, just to put that out there. All that said, yeah, this week was a definite toss-up between Steelers/Dolphins and Bears/Patriots for best of the week, but I'm with you--I'm giving the nod to PIT/MIA.

Wellp, there's your (rather large) helmet ad right there....

Can someone break down to me how all these soccer playoff tables/in season League Cup/Champion Cup/Open Cup tournament things go? I know the rules of the game on the pitch...singular games, that us. But I've never known how all the rest of that stuff works...vielen dank im voraus!

ANYWAY... ...Not sure if this is the right place for this, but I'm placing this here: renderings of the soon-to-be new Snatit playhouse:

Yep, last week was a bust for sure...on to Week 8. Baltimore vs. Tampa Bay Denver vs. Jacksonville Miami vs. Detroit Carolina vs. Atlanta Arizona vs. Minnesota Chicago vs. Dallas Las Vegas vs. New Orleans Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia New England vs. NY Jets Tennessee vs. Houston NY Giants vs. Seattle Washington vs. Indianapolis (can we pick ties??) San Francisco vs. LA Rams Green Bay vs. Buffalo Cincinnati vs. Cleveland

Part of that is their familiarity with each other going back to their time at Clemson...also remember him being drafted after Robinson's 1000-yard season was Urban Meyer's idea. That said, where this move may come back to gore them in the rear is something happens to Etienne--true, of all the positions on the field these days, RB is probably the one position where plug-&-play works best, but still, perhaps they Jags can stand to learn from Christian McCaffrey and the guy for which Robinson was traded to replace in the first place. But then, long-term vision has never really been a strength of that organization post-Coughlin, so...

It's on both; that said, the width of those current collars helps nothing.

Oh heckz yeah! My dawg, you just gave me a reason to post THESE (and let it be known that this is my second-favorite sports uniform set ever, right behind the blue-and-bronze Screagles): If NE were to "mixtape" these with the Brady Block numbers/NOB, that'd be a straight winner for me! (I want those sublimated flag stripes in the jersey bodies to come back, too!) Side note: do y'all see how big Scott Zolak's head is?? Dude was bordering on Larry Allen territory squeezing that melon up in that helmet. (I wonder if the Patriots Pro Shop is still selling his jersey...I came thisclose to getting his instead of Drew Bledsoe's last time I was up there.)

Well...it wouldn't be the first time a team trades a highly-touted young player to a team in need at that position. I said that to say...this just happened: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nfl.com/_amp/jaguars-to-trade-james-robinson-to-rb-needy-jets-in-exchange-for-draft-picks Jags gonna keep jaggin' apparently...

I personally would love for [what I've been calling] the Brady Block numbers to come back...subtly, they and the NOB font that came with it were distinctive and "theirs". That to the side, though...yes, the gray silver pants work WONDERS for this set. I say pair them with the white jerseys, as well.