BBTV

The first football game I remember watching was SBXX, so my Bears history starts with Jim McMahon. Besides your list, off the top of my head I have: Jim Harbaugh comes to mind, but I only know about that from Tecmo Super Bowl. Rex Grossman - proof that anyone can trip and fall into a Super Bowl appearance every decade or so. The guy with the neck beard - can't remember his name. Jay Cutler - straight up comical that they thought he was their guy, and then double-downed on it.

I think this is right, it's just a rare poorly-worded announcement by the team. Technically, "leading into the game when the Eagles will wear their throwbacks" doesn't mean the same as "leading into the game, where the Eagles will wear their throwbacks" don't mean the same thing, but are close enough to cause confusion. They're usually better at this stuff.

Maybe because they didn't play a single down in the Delaware Valley? Maybe because they made no effort to connect with the community or even advertise in the market? I don't know if it could work, and I've said a hundred times that I think Franklin Field is the only way it can, but the ridiculous hub model made it so they didn't even have a chance.

That's the stupidest idea ever (for college sports). Why would any kid who's being recruited to various schools sign with a team in a league, when that team may not be in that same league the following season (and then could be back in it after that?) Kids with choices may want to be in a league where they're showcased against a certain level of talent, so the school wouldn't be holding up their end of the bargain (it's a different situation as actual realignments, which are typically long-term deals and not fluid.) Players should be allowed to bail if the team switches league due to this system. The mid-season scheduling change thing is also stupid, since people make plans well in advance for road trips, and all of a sudden the schedule changes. This just doesn't work.

That's a good way of looking at it. This isn't the right thread to debate partner cities to join them (though that's basically what we've spent most of it doing), but I think that's now their main impediment - one that didn't exist had LV and StP not gotten deals done. Their best case would have been for both Oakland and the Rays to stay put, then come in with LV.

Coca-Cola Light (non-US) also uses the classic script, and IIRC there's now a "Coca-Cola Light No Sugar" which uses the classic script, but I think it's red+white, vs the red+black of the US/Canada versions.

JFC can we stop with the hubs already? How's anyone supposed to support a team that they'll never see live and has no presence in the community? We're three years into this - should have been enough time to figure it out.

Rays situation isn't going to end, even when this new thing is built. The same issues will exist, we'll still be harping on their weak support and hearing the same reasons for it, and the only difference is we won't be able to talk about the catwalks and how awful the inside looks like. I wish them the best chance at success - I really do - but this isn't it, and they're committing to decades of the same old thing. Bad day for the Nashville Stars

That's actually not bad. Whatever they do, end it before Memorial Day. Too many people get away, whether to the shore, mountains, or other ways of taking advantage of the long weekend to spend it watching minor-league sports (or sports at all for that matter.) Better yet - but we know it won't happen - draft HS seniors, overpay them to play for 2 seasons (if they're drafted) and maybe a couple more (if they're not drafted but still have potential.) Smarty pantses can still go to Stanford or an Ivy League school, but that's a minority of these guys. Just make it what it should be - a d-league for prospects that don't want any part of the college nonsense, other than being BMOC and banging coeds right and left (which we're finding it isn't always consensual), so maybe this keeps them out of trouble.)

I don't really understand why there's a merger, since they're not really competitors, and there's not much either side could want from the other besides (possibly) territorial rights to markets they're not yet in. When they say "merger", I bet they mean that one side is liquidating assets which will be absorbed by the other, who will then discard whatever they don't want/need (including players), and then basically start over as a new league. I'm not sure which league has the more-talented players, but in a situation like this there would almost have to be a re-draft just for competitive-balance sake, and for the best of the players who's teams will cease to exist. The biggest trick to all of this is the network situation, since I assume each league has multi-year deals in place and one would have to break theirs, or the surviving entity would need to renegotiate. Point being - while I didn't read the article (why would I bother to educate myself?) this can't be a "merger" in the traditional sense.

it's not a rumored legend, it's true.

I'll never forget the hype of that draft and the hope we had when he was picked (over Penny). He was supposed to change the way the game is played, by basically being a taller and better Ralph Sampson who would be indefensible once he put on weight. In hindsight, we just tricked ourselves into believing that a skinny dude who had only a mediocre college career and spent two years out of the game while preaching religion was prepared to live up to those unreasonable expectations. It's absolutely tragic what ended up happening to him. There's a story on it on SI that is impossible to make it through without tearing up, no matter what you think of the guy.

I was gonna point out that the New Coke wordmark is still in use in the Diet Coke line, but it looks like they updated it as some point and I never noticed. Looks like another version was used as recently as 2013:

I forget which two dopes were singing the praises of Cam Newton being a mature role model, but he's also one that has recently supported Watson, even suggesting that he "admires" him. FOH with both of them. I don't have any more "wish injury on someone" cards, but I guess liking a post shouldn't get me in trouble.

He was the NFL's uniform monitor for several years, and the one that would issue the fines for uniform violations and send the memos to the clubs.

There's no real choice there, but MNF has traditionally been a national game. Monday hasn't been a "regular" night of football, other than the silly opening-Monday things they've done the past few years, which I also think are dumb. Plus on Sunday, you don't have a network family competing against itself like now with ABC and ESPN broadcasting the games. I personally hate when my team is on MNF (like they will be next week... right after being on TNF) and now there's 2x the chances of that happening. I imagine most people on the east time zone who work a "9-5" hate their team on MNF.

Was there a stated reason behind having two games compete against each other on MNF? On the surface it doesn't seem to make much sense.

Just do this:

There's "classic" and then there's "old". I've always felt this fits into the latter category. It's also not great to use a fixed-color logo as a badge for cars of all different colors (not that they make more than one car anymore, but the point still stands.) The script by itself would be a better badge, or maybe there should be a vehicle badge that's separate from the "corporate logo". I know that's a very unpopular opinion, but it's mine. It also sucks that they've basically abandoned the urban customer by offering only SUVs, trucks, and the Mustang, none of which are practical in an extremely dense environment (despite dopes buying them and then whining that they're too big to park and and when they get nicked because they stick out too far from the curb.)

Good thing they spent the extra money to make it retractable!! Idiots.

That doesn't sound very plausible, since we know that colored socks do exist. It also shouldn't be hard to source them elsewhere. Not sure how many super-proprietary colors there are in socks, but some (like the Eagles) would just be black, so that shouldn't be much of an issue. It's just a look that players seem to like, and since there's no rules, there's nothing anyone can do about it. I've heard some say that the white socks make them look faster. I mean, there's obviously no actual difference, but without rules, they're going to go with whatever they want for whatever reason they want. BRING THIS MAN BACK:

Well that's not really working out for them, as they've averaged around 25k in the first two full years of the park, and 31k this year despite being pretty good. Regarding the old ballpark, WHY DID THEY APPROVE THE DESIGN? It should be illegal to approve a design, get a park built, then complain that people can't enjoy the park because of the design that THEY CAME UP WITH AND APPROVED, then ask for more money to build a new billion-dollar Costco to play in. I'm no engineer, but I have to believe that there's a way to build stadiums in ways that shade is provided, whether fixed, or with giant-moving arms (like Mr. Burns' sun blocker). Hell - we're spending $2B on these things, what's the difference? EDIT: their attendance at the new park has actually dropped from the around the last 10 (maybe more) seasons of the old one, so they can screw themselves. https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/TEX/attend.shtml Year Tm Lg W L Finish Playoffs Attendance Attend/G Rank Est. Payroll PPF BPF Stadium 2023 Texas Rangers AL West 82 67 2 2,342,790 31,237 7th of 15 $248,537,867 102 103 Globe Life Field 2022 Texas Rangers AL West 68 94 4 2,011,361 24,832 7th of 15 $120,176,667 101 101 Globe Life Field 2021 Texas Rangers AL West 60 102 5 2,110,258 26,053 1st of 15 $67,890,999 102 100 Globe Life Field 2020 Texas Rangers AL West 22 38 5 14th of 15 $122,326,667 101 99 Globe Life Field 2019 Texas Rangers AL West 78 84 3 2,132,994 26,333 6th of 15 $104,433,499 112 111 Globe Life Park in Arlington 2018 Texas Rangers AL West 67 95 5 2,107,107 26,014 7th of 15 $106,099,628 111 110 Globe Life Park in Arlington 2017 Texas Rangers AL West 78 84 3 2,507,760 30,960 5th of 15 $207,326,274 110 110 Globe Life Park in Arlington 2016 Texas Rangers AL West 95 67 1 Lost ALDS (3-0) 2,710,402 33,462 5th of 15 $212,117,760 108 107 Globe Life Park in Arlington 2015 Texas Rangers AL West 88 74 1 Lost ALDS (3-2) 2,491,875 30,764 7th of 15 $178,860,789 105 105 Globe Life Park in Arlington 2014 Texas Rangers AL West 67 95 5 2,718,733 33,565 5th of 15 $129,801,239 104 104 Globe Life Park in Arlington 2013 Texas Rangers AL West 91 72 2 3,178,273 38,759 2nd of 15 $139,261,200 103 103 Rangers Ballpark in Arlington 2012 Texas Rangers AL West 93 69 2 Lost ALWC (1-0) 3,460,280 42,720 2nd of 14 $124,119,900 107 109 Rangers Ballpark in Arlington 2011 Texas Rangers AL West 96 66 1 Lost WS (4-3) 2,946,949 36,382 5th of 14 $93,799,264 108 109 Rangers Ballpark in Arlington 2010 Texas Rangers AL West 90 72 1 Lost WS (4-1) 2,505,171 30,928 5th of 14 $56,474,374 108 109 Rangers Ballpark in Arlington 2009 Texas Rangers AL West 87 75 2 2,156,016 26,617 8th of 14 $79,723,548 104 104 Rangers Ballpark in Arlington 2008 Texas Rangers AL West 79 83 2 1,945,677 24,021 11th of 14 $68,037,326 102 101 Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

So it's a renovation deal, not a new stadium?

shouldn't impact the font though.

And I just don't understand why a place that's allegedly so bad to drive to will become a place that people will attract people to live. Location, location, location. I currently commute about 90mins each way to work (30 miles via transit or car with traffic) but most people aren't like me and want to live that far away from their job, and I'm assuming most people's job isn't near the stadium (or it'd be easier for them to go to games.) This just sounds like doubling down (actually, tripling down) on existing issues.