Heavy's Arena Football thread ((USFL/XFL/AAF/AFL)) **DLC begins**

[heavybass]

As requested by @BengalErnst, this is going to be a thread covering the USFL, the XFL, the AAF and the AFL so there will be no NFL teams of the like.... probably for the best too if I have to be honest.

Figuring out how to do this was something I've been meaning to do since I'm technically coming full circle with the NCAA Arena Football league, that is professionally run, well at least run in my specifics per say.

To begin with as I did with the UAXF thread that might come back one day as that HAS 2 teams left so for those that remember that thread, then you know what team comes first.

ORLANDO APOLLOS

Now then figuring out new colors is something I didn't expect to discover when it comes to the Apollos but Navy wasn't something I considered part of the identity although it does work as a canvas for the bright orange and the white.... however as @Bomba Tomba commented recently creating an indigo that mixes purple AND navy together works just as well and since we are in Arena Football terms, I have decided to give the Apollos an alternate set of orange pants that they can use because as much Indigo I would like to see on the field, orange works well.

The Helmet now has the pant striping as well which is one of the changes I made alongside the new indigo.

PLUS with this scheme they look like the Frankfurt Galaxy and everyone knows how much of a :censored: yeah look the Galaxy had.

[BengalErnst]

Look forward to this. 

[Bomba Tomba]

Yes! Good call on the indigo

[SpidersReorg]

I will watch this with great interest.

[heavybass]

Here is this is how it's going to work:

There will be 12 USFL teams, 12 XFL teams including past names, all 8 AAF teams and then 16 AFL teams.

[heavybass]

With that said in mind, it's time to move onto the next team and our first Arena Football team.... that is not the Barnstormers which is essentially the meat of this sandwich.

CHICAGO BRUISERS

 

The Chicago Bruisers were one of the four founding clubs of Arena Football back in 1987 and they were described as an old school team in an indoor arena setting with the theme of black of blue like actual bruisers normally look like after a round of beating each other up but in concepts, the black is downplayed mostly because black doesn't suit a team like the Bruisers where other colors do.

So for a team like the Bruisers I decided to bring back the blue from the original run and then add a lighter blue and a navy blue to the listing creating the Triple Blue set.... but like the Chicago Bears, they don't wear monochrome pairings, they pair with B/B/W and B/B/NB for home and then B/W/LB/NB for road.... thankfully I don't see this team as badly run like what the Halas clan have been doing.

[heavybass]

Before the Christmas Holidays settles in, I figured I would update with one more Arena Football team.... and technically this team still exists today but before they moved to where they are at the moment, they were one of the original founders of Arena Football and with that in mind, let's reintroduce ourselves to this team's original location.

PITTSBURGH GLADIATORS

Before we begin with what I did... let's get the obvious one out of the way, the logo quite frankly sucked and @WideRight did a oversized logo one on his concept which effectively eliminated me from doing that.... so I decided to take a logo from a hockey team, made it large, updated it without bevelments as I have little to terrible experience with them aka Texas A&M and used a proper Bronze to go with the Green, Black and White.

Here the Gladiators are a hybrid of styles with three pant options as one pair of pants in Arena Football is a bit mundane and quite frankly factors into the cheap factor of the sport and then there was what Antonio Brown did to the Albany Empire which is :censored:ing heinous by itself.

[heavybass]

Shoulder numbers for the Gladiators and the Bruisers are also coming as well... I didn't have enough time to do them considering its Christmas and all.

[WideRight]

I am a huge fan of a deep green and copper/bronze as a color combo.  It works really well here.  It was also really good looking when a fan group tried to convince the then-Tennsessee Oilers to become the Copperheads instead of the eventual Titans. They used that combo really well.  

 

[heavybass]

28 minutes ago, WideRight said:

I am a huge fan of a deep green and copper/bronze as a color combo.  It works really well here.  It was also really good looking when a fan group tried to convince the then-Tennsessee Oilers to become the Copperheads instead of the eventual Titans. They used that combo really well.  

 

Correct. It is a very underutilised combo and the Copperheads would of been very noted and famous for said combo... unfortuately Bud Adams put that serpent six feet under.

 

[heavybass]

And now for the shoulders of the Bruisers and the Gladiators.

[heavybass]

Next up is a team from the XFL with a uniform set that was spot on when they were first launched but then took two steps back to The Rock's XFL because of minimalist designs and pointless bevelments.

Time I fixed this team design and give it an Arena look at the same time.

DC DEFENDERS

The Defenders have made some very VERY odd choices when it comes to pants and for a pointless silver colour that doesn't work.... This team is like Nebraska and Wisconsin... two colours only ever work for this team and this is where I draw my line in the sand.

Red and White is all DC needs, nothing else... So I made a White Helmet and then it's Red for Home with White pants as an alternate pair with White for Road with Red pants as alternate... and then since it's Arena Football... DC Stars on the sleeves, Lightning bolts and half striped striping on the pants.

[heavybass]

Hope you are all having a good Christmas Eve, I am most certainly am better health wise compared to last year which was agony.... but anyway we now have a USFL team and considering that league is mostly traditional, that is a challenge by itself but challenges is what I try to achieve well and I had a plan in mind for the first team today as we are now going to tackle what I consider the most well known team of the USFL.

MICHIGAN PANTHERS

 

The Michigan Panthers are we all know are a side famous for it's Champagne and Maroon like Wine combination which pairs up with the light blue to create a set that is still to this day the most unique out there.

So what I did was to adapt to a PROPER Champagne tone which I found and then I darkened the maroon so it works with the new lighter tone and then since we are using the current Panthers look as the base of this concept... I decided to adapt the Michigan Wolverines look into the set to bring the classic set to a more modern feel but with tradition still in it's core and that's all I did.

@BengalErnst and many other USFL fans come take a look at what I offer.

[heavybass]

Team number 6 is going to be our 2nd XFL team and I figure we go back to the old days of 1.0 for a team that played in Ravens colours yet was stuck in the midway.... time for the 2nd team of Chicago of this league

 

CHICAGO ENFORCERS

 

For the Enforcers I went ahead and replicated their only season kit but with a few exceptions...

The logo loses the black but adds in purple so it can be seen on the field, as a consequence the logo gets dropped from the sleeves as I felt that the uniforms were already good enough.

Adding a third pair of pants to the set... which is purple as the team focuses on black, purple, white and grey... I treated them like the Ravens without the yellow.

-----

However there will be multiple city teams as these guys and Bruisers are in the same city but maybe different arenas perhaps?

[BengalErnst]

I’m not much of a USFL fan.. I’m 100% on team XFL 

[heavybass]

Just now, BengalErnst said:

I’m not much of a USFL fan.. I’m 100% on team XFL 

Ah ok.... you might want to see above then.

[Bomba Tomba]

Funny you mentioned this being basically the Ravens without the gold, because this would be a good look for them if they do drop the gold

 

I'd make the names and shoulder numbers on the away white though, for visibility

[BengalErnst]

12 hours ago, heavybass said:

Ah ok.... you might want to see above then.

I certainly am. Happy to see the Enforcers make it in. Favorite squad 

[heavybass]

7 hours ago, Bomba Tomba said:

Funny you mentioned this being basically the Ravens without the gold, because this would be a good look for them if they do drop the gold

 

I'd make the names and shoulder numbers on the away white though, for visibility

Good thing you did mention that... Around that time, the Ravens beat the Giants in the Super Bowl so this was at the time a popular look... something 1.0 copied for obvious reasons.

[heavybass]

But I figured we would update again with another team in the USFL and let me put it this way....

Navy and Gold does not belong here. "Kicks out the Navy and Gold Showboats from existence."

With that fire hazard out of the way... time for the proper Showboats to shine.

MEMPHIS SHOWBOATS

Oh Showboats what do I do with you? I've already used up the Silver Sky colorfont that @WideRight discovered and this is a team that doesn't deserve the Pekka Rine treatment no matter how officials and fans complain about how red heavy the current USFL is.

So what I did was essentially bring the old colours back, darkened the silver, brightened the red and made a bright silver helmet to accompany the new logo.