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Uni Watch

What a Rip-Off!

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I should have had this for yesterday’s entry, but nobody had brought it to my attention: Right at the start of Monday night’s 76ers/Clippers game, Sixers guard Tony Wroten grabbed onto Clippers center DeAndre Jordan’s jersey and pulled the “Los Angeles” insignia right off of it. During the next stoppage of play, Jordan was provided with a new jersey. You can see all of this in the video clip above.

Two thoughts about this:

1) I guess this would qualify as an argument in favor of distinct-lettered chest marks, instead of interconnected scripts. If the same thing had happened to a player on, say, the Spurs, he would have lost only one letter instead of the whole insignia.

2) Interesting to see that they had another jersey with Jordan’s number and NOB at the ready. Is this standard? Do players routinely change into new jerseys at halftime? If so, why does anyone ever end up in a blood jersey? I’ve emailed the Clippers and a few other NBA teams to see if they can answer those questions — no response yet. If any NBA team staffers are reading this, please fill us in. … Update: Just heard back from the Clippers: “Yes, we always have extra jerseys available for all players.” So there you go.

Meanwhile, speaking of in-game mishaps, there was a weird situation in last night’s Red Wings/Panthers game in Florida, as a pane of Plexiglass broke and had to be replaced. But for some reason the repair crew couldn’t remove the protective wrap from the new pane of glass:

Contrary to what the broadcasters said (and what hordes of fans then began parroting on Twitter), that isn’t plywood — it’s a standard Plexiglass pane, but they couldn’t remove the protective wrap. This created a very odd spectacle (photo courtesy of Phil, click to enlarge):

I’m told that they were finally able to remove the wrap in between the third period and overtime.

Meanwhile: I have a new ESPN column today (which I thought was going to run tomorrow) about the unusually large concentration of uni-centric events on the upcoming calendar.

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’Tis the Season: College football’s bowl season is now upon us. Unfortunately, almost all of the bowl games either have names that have been modified by corporate sponsors (the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl) or have names that are exclusively corporate-sponsored (the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl).

In past years, I’ve sporadically mocked the bowl naming process by referring to, say, the Chicken Sandwich Bowl (instead of the Chick-fil-A Bowl), or whatever. But I haven’t been thorough or consistent about it. That will change this year, as I’ve established a new name for each of this season’s corporate-named bowl games. Here’s the full list, in chronological order:
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[table id=19 /]

The names shown in the right column are the names that I (and all other Uni Watch writers) will be using when referring to this year’s bowl games. If you want to keep the names handy for future reference, I invite you to print out the full list.

I can already anticipate some of your reactions to this, so let’s shift into FAQ mode:

These alternate names are really annoying.

I agree — but they’re not nearly as annoying as the bowl-naming process. As you can see on my list, games without corporate naming sponsors, like the Texas Bowl and the Fight Hunger Bowl, will be referred to by their proper names. If and when other games go that route, we’ll be happy to refer to them by their proper names as well.

You’re taking it too far. Instead of referring to the Allstate Sugar Bowl as the Insurance Bowl, just call it the Sugar Bowl.

True, that approach would stick it to the corporate sponsor, but it would also allow the game and its organizers to maintain a certain degree of dignity — a dignity that they forfeited when they sold out their name to the highest bidder. My intent here is not just to mock the sponsors but to mock the entire bowl-naming process.

If that’s the case, then how come your Naming Wrongs T-shirts said things like “I Still Call It Comiskey” and “I Still Call It Mile High”? Shouldn’t they have said, “I’m Calling It Cell Phone Stadium” and “I’m Calling It Car Insurance Field”?

Fair point. But stadiums and their names are local civic assets that mean a lot to local fans. Our intent with the Naming Wrongs series wasn’t just to mock the system of corporate naming rights but to provide hometown fans with a way of reclaiming what had been taken from them. I don’t see bowl game names as the same kind of thing. Well, maybe they’re the same kind of thing for the community where the game takes place, but not for the schools that will be participating in the games or the national audience that will be watching. You may disagree, and that’s fine.

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Special One-Day Raffle: I am occasionally on the receiving end of free jerseys, T-shirts, and the like. Last month, unsurprisingly, one of those items was camouflage-patterned. Here, take a look (and click to enlarge):

IMG_3221.jpg

I’m not going to wear it myself, for obvious reasons (plus it’s too big), and I don’t feel comfortable giving it away in our annual year-end raffle. So I was going to drop it off at our local fabric recycling depot, but then I had a better idea.

So here’s the deal: I will raffle off this jersey today, provided that the winner is willing to make (and can show proof of having made) a $25 donation to the Peace Corps, thereby symbolizing that not all soldiers are heroes and not all heroes are soldiers. (And yes, the apostrophe catastrophe on that page is disappointing, but I’m willing to cut the Peace Corps some slack.)

Jersey specs: Made of lightweight nylon/polyester/Spandex mesh; tagged as a large; measures 24″ from pit to pit and 34″ from the top of the back collar to the bottom hem; has No. 1 on the back; all graphics are sublimated, except for the American flag patch on the front, which is sewn on. (Sorry, I don’t have the matching shorts.)

If you want to enter the raffle and are willing to make the Peace Corps donation if you win, send a blank email with your name in the subject line to the raffle address by 10pm Eastern tonight. One entry per person. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow.

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Baseball News: Looks like Rajai Davis, who usually wears stirrups, may be headed to Motown. Who was the last Tiger to wear stirrups? (From Matt Hoffman.) … Tyler Kepner is down at the MLB winter meetings, where he saw a socks/stirrups display by Twin City Knitting. … Who’s that in the Little League uni? None other than indie-rocker and Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle. “That’s from Claremont, California, circa 1979, when I actually made a decent play or two,” he says. “The magic of that Mets name, no doubt. The team was coached by Robert Mezey, a poet of some note and the man who, many years later, taught me poetry at college level. Without his tutelage I would not have become the writer I became; huge figure in my life.” Jeez — my Little League coaches were all plumbers and electricians. … Curtis Granderson, newly acquired by the Mets, had a pinstriped No. 3 jersey for his introductory press conference yesterday. … Speaking of the Mets, can someone please explain to me why 64-year-old skipper Terry Collins was wearing this godawful purple outfit at the winter meetings? Sheesh! ”¦ Tim Hudson, recently acquired by the Giants, will be wearing No. 17. ”¦ The logo for the Twins’ annual TwinsFest event features the mascot characters on their logo wearing earmuffs and shaking hands above a frozen Mississippi River (from Mike Klug). … Crummy image quality but still cool: an old Salt Lake City team with a bee chest logo (big thanks to Bill Francis). … Patrick Walsh DIY’d himself this awesome St. Looey Cards Christmas stocking, complete with stripes! Nicely done. ”¦ This is pretty awesome: As the Royals celebrated Steve Busby’s no-hitter in 1974, a scuzzy-looking fan ran onto the field, grabbed KC catcher Fran Healy’s cap right off his head, and tucked it into his jacket with a shifty look on his face. But then a KC coach (or player..?) confronted him and retrieved the cap. You can see the whole thing unfold in the first 35 seconds of this video (big thanks to Matthew Prigge):

Lots of other good stuff in that clip, too — the photographer with the cigarette dangling from his lip, the other photographer with the loud-patterned slacks, etc. Ah, the ’70s! ”¦ And speaking of video, here’s a major find: Jerry Wolper came across the official year-end highlight movie for the 1956 Kansas City A’s. “Lots of uni goodness, some All-Star Game footage, and some 1956 Americana too,” says Jerry. Here, check it out:

NFL News: Back on Monday I mentioned Andrew McKillop’s database of NFL snow games. Scott M.X. Turner was poking around on that page and found a link to a newspaper account of a 1950 Eagles/Giants game with the headline “Eagle Fans Chase Ref.” Yowza! “Sounds like the greatest game we never saw,” says Scott. … With the Super Bowl coming to NYC, the Transit Authority has designed a special transit map for the occasion (from Dave Rakowski).

College Football News: Here’s how Yankee Stadium is shaping up for the Baseball Cap Bowl. Additional view here (from Warren Junium). … In a related item, the head coaches of the two schools participating in that game — Rutgers and Notre Dame — posed for a very unfortunate photo-op yesterday. But hey, given A-Rod’s legal troubles, those may be the only No. 13 jerseys we see at Yankee Stadium for a while (from Dave Rakowski). … North Texas will wear black for the Heart of Dallas Bowl (from Chris Mycoskie). … Some great vintage college football program covers here (from Sean Clancy).

Hockey News: Reader Brian Thompson wondered what the story was behind the patch in this old Red Wings photo. So I went to the excellent NHL Patches site — a great and underappreciated resource — and found the answer. … Totally NSFW (or at least not for the squeamish): A player in a minor league game in Quebec took a skate blade to the cheek and suffered a seriously gruesome facial injury. Yikes! ”¦ Here are the very nice throwback jerseys for this week’s AHL Frozen Frontier game in Rochester (from Patrick Mackin).

Soccer News: Cerezo Osaka from the J-League will wear an all-pink jersey next year (from Thomas Fiers). … Not sure how many of these we may have covered already, but Trevor Williams sent along a batch of World Cup away kits (for all of these, scroll down to see the away kit): Spain, Germany, Argentina, Russia, and Japan. Also: New away kit for Sweden, although they aren’t in the Cup. … Several Turkish players are in hot water for wearing and displaying pro-Mandela undershirts the other day (thanks, Phil).

Basketball News: The Bobcats will unveil next season’s Hornets logos on Dec. 21. No mention of uniforms in that story, though. … I think we’ve seen this old photo of Oscar Robertson wearing a mask before. What we haven’t seen, I’m pretty sure, is this shot of the mask itself (great find by Jared Wheeler). … Here’s the logo for the D-League All-Star Game (from Conrad Burry). … Kansas player Andrew White III has RNOB (from Coleman Mullins).

Grab Bag: Here’s an article on unlucky uniforms (from Rob S.). … The magazine industry is bad and the bowling industry is worse, but the venerable Bowlers Journal just marked its 100th anniversary and is still going strong. … The Fruit Stripe trend has reached the world of high school basketball. That’s Albertville High School in Alabama. “Trust me, they’re just as ugly in person,” says Jonathan Lancaster. … Not sports-related, but thought-provoking and very entertaining: The Gawker brain trust had a length debate about whether the city of Detroit should sell its art collection. Good reader-posted comments, too. Recommended reading. … Ever wonder what Santa would look like if he got a brand makeover? Right, me neither, but here it is anyway (from Bernie Langer). ”¦ Here’s a good case for a new concept for ticket designs (from Sean Clancy). ”¦ New logo for Wrestlemania, if you’re into that kinda thing (from Trey Ashby). ”¦ Interesting cross-sport news from Leo Strawn Jr.: Melbourne FC — that’s an Aussie rules football team — will have “MCC” on its 2014 jerseys. “That stands for ‘Melbourne Cricket Club,'” explains Leo. “The footy team was spawned from the MCC, and to this day they share (along with other clubs) the Melbourne Cricket Ground.”

 
  
 
Comments (214)

    Link missing for the Salt Lake uniform.

    Love he Twinsfest logo. Neat idea.

    And nice job not playing the corporate bowl name game. It really is sickening.

    By the way, the cap retriever in that video looks like coach Galen Cisco. And does he wind up giving the cap to Busby?

    link

    The skeezy guy gives a half-hearted attempt to snatch another cap at the :41 mark. Who is this guy, and why does nobody seem to care at all that he is hanging around???

    I thought the same thing. So if by chance Busby’s no hit hat is at the Hall of Fame then thy probably have the wrong hat.

    I don’t know which broadcast team was claiming that was plywood, but it wasn’t the Red Wings’ team on FSD.

    I use plexiglas sheets like that in my sign business. Usually the paper peels off easily; the only time there’s a problem is if the sheet is old. Then the paper comes off in little bits and pieces and can drive you absolutely bonkers. I can’t believe that they couldn’t get the paper off on the first shot.

    -Jet

    In the video of Busby’s no-hitter – does anyone else think his jersey color and front lettering looks more washed-out than that of teammates? Especially at 0:45, next to the player on the right of the screen. That player’s uni looks brighter, both the blue and the white lettering, and in addition, the lettering looks LARGER than Busby’s. What do you think?

    -Jet

    >>Because it’s the Rose Bowl.>>
    >>“Bowl presented by High-Definition Televisions”

    I agree with Jay Lite! If you’re going to change the name to mock annoying advertisers go all the way!

    I’ve also never understood why it’s called “The Rose Bowl Game…” Why is the word “game” necessary? It’s the “game” as opposed to some big bowl holding roses that we might confuse it with?

    Sure, but it’s still not necessary. Nobody is going to tune it to look at a stadium unless, you know, there’s a game going on!

    Because the Rose Bowl is, in fact, more than just the game. It makes perfect sense to specify that one is referring to the game itself, as opposed to the larger sequence of events surrounding the game that simply saying “Rose Bowl” might refer to. Same thing with the Super Bowl – if you just say you’re going to New York for the Super Bowl, that could mean that you’re planning to participate in a week-long orgy of corporate parties that may or may not include attending the actual game. If you’ve got tickets to the game itself, you may need to specify that you’re going to New York to attend the Super Bowl game.

    No, the BCS title game is the Flat Screen Bowl, HDTV Bowl, or whatever. And I own a Vizio. Why they call it the Rose Bowl Game is that there is also the stadium and the parade.

    I’m trying to figure out why donating to the Peace Corps gives me the willies. I was a vol during its early years. Don ‘t want to be contrasted w the military? Don’t think Federal government agencies should receive donations? Don’t want the attention? Maybe other PC vets feel differently. Interested to hear.

    Wow. Last Tiger to wear stirrups…REGULARLY…was probably CJ Nitkowski? Great question…and I’m a Tigers die-hard.

    Can we come up with other examples of patches that have been worn by multiple teams in the same city?

    For example: The Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants all wore the trylon/perisphere patch to promote the 1939 World’s Fair (although that example has three teams from the same sport, whereas the Detroit example has three teams from thee different sports).

    Hmmmmm…..

    Although, to argue against myself, all that really matches is the Montreal Olympics logo. The patch shapes are different and the Habs’ version has a wordmark. But the concept and overall effect is similar.

    The pirates and penguins wore a Pittsburgh 250 patch a couple years back to celebrate the city’s 250th anniversary.

    I know the Pens wore them all season. The Buccos might have only wore them for a couple games.

    link

    link,!h!Ew5FLnpjpBMZ95Wb2dw~~_35.JPG

    The Steelers wore a Bicentennial Pittsburgh patch for late-season home games in 1958 and for all of their 1959 home games. Odd that the Pirates didn’t – at least according to Dressed to the Nines – for either year.

    The Boston Red Sox and Bruins both wore patches for Massachusetts’s bicentennial. Same patch, but different colors to match the respective teams.
    Red Sox: link
    Bruins: the website isn’t super friendly to iPads, so go to nhlpatches.info, search by team\Eastern Conference\Boston Bruins, and it’s the second result.

    In 1975, the Broncos wore a Colorado State Centennial Patch with a large ’76’ on it.
    link

    At the time, I believe the only other ‘pro’ team in Colorado/Denver was the Nuggets. Any way of checking that?

    The Chargers were the only show in town when they wore the ‘All-American City’ decal on the front of their helmets, right?

    Those are the only other civic-related NFL patches/decals I can remember.

    Wasn’t the same year, or decade even – the teams didn’t exist at the same time, after all – but the NHL Pirates and NFL Pirates/Steelers have worn the Pittsburgh city coat of arms.

    What’s odd, though, is that the crest on the ’33 Pirates team appears to have a link, while the version worn by the 1994 Steelers had a link.

    Bill, the Nuggets wore the Colorado Centennial patch during the 1975-76 season. This is the best pic I could find – it’s the small patch on the bottom of the shorts:

    link

    Thanks, MattB.

    The Broncos actually wore the patch for 1 game as I remember. Do we know if the same is true for the Nuggets or did they wear it all season?

    As a side note, isn’t weird that Denver wore the ’76’ patch in the 1975 season and NOT in the 1976 season?

    Have the Suns, Diamondbacks, or Coyotes ever worn the Arizona state flag like the Phoenix Cardinals did when they first moved there from St. Louis?

    Most possible of the three is the ‘yotes wearing it as a shoulder emblem at some point.

    “Have the Suns, Diamondbacks, or Coyotes ever worn the Arizona state flag like the Phoenix Cardinals did when they first moved there from St. Louis?”

    IIRC the Arizona USFL team wore state flag helmet decals and their original uniform set’s color scheme was influenced by AZ’s state flag as well.

    Instead of “Helicopter Bowl”, may I suggest “Chopper Bowl”?

    And, yes, it must be pronounced “CHOPPA” in your best (or worst) Schwarzenegger impression.

    Still, “chopper” is way too civilian or Hollywood. I’m told by friends in the service that a helicopter is usually a bird, rarely a helo, never a chopper. So Bird Bowl it should be.

    Yes, but I think you definitely need to keep the quotes. Just because Little Caesar calls it “pizza”, “pizza” doesn’t mean it’s pizza, pizza.

    I can’t hear “Pizza Bowl” without remembering that Laverne Dafazio’s (of Laverne & Shirly fame) father owned the Pizza Bowl! Combination pizzaria/bowling alley.

    link

    I agree. I never stopped calling it the Peach Bowl. I love CFA, but using their name for a football game is stupid.

    On the other hand, am I the only one that thinks of the Outback Bowl as just being the bowl’s given name? For whatever reason, it seems to work on that one (and they’ve stuck to that sponsor for years). I think it may have once been the Hall of Fame Bowl, but honestly, that name in Tampa just doesn’t make a lot of sense anyway. Not that Outback does, but I digress.

    Next year the CFA Bowl could very well be renamed the Peach Bowl, when Atlanta’s bowl joins the playoff lineup.

    Giving all the bowls a name is a great idea. It’s only fair to treat them all the same, though the bowls with the longest and most unwieldy names are the worst offenders.

    My first thought was Brandon Inge, but photos suggest he was pants up with solid socks.

    Leyland wore them at least once, though not regularly: link

    Why the Peace Corps? Why not a Police/Firefighter/EMT Family support organization. I agree with the first half of your statement that not all heroes are soldiers, but why choose one group that does “Good Work” to deify over any other? I’m not saying it isn’t a great organization. I was just wondering if you had a specific reason for choosing them or if it was simply an anti-political while staying political statement

    Because I like the Peace Corps, and because I like peace as a good counterpoint to militarism. Or to put it another way, why NOT the Peace Corps?

    But yes, any of those other groups you specified would also work well (as would many other worthy groups). Tell me, if I had chosen one of those other groups you just specified, would you have said, “Why them?” Or do you just have a chip on your shoulder about the Peace Corps?

    “thereby symbolizing that not all soldiers are heroes and not all heroes are soldiers.”

    I don’t know why Paul feels the need to write this? I have nothing wrong with donating to the Peace Corps, but why on Earth does he write that sentence? Is that a slogan for something? Heroes come from all over the place, EMT, Firefighters, Police, citizens, soldiers, doctors, nurses, hell maybe someone on here has done something to help someone…. but he singles out “soldiers” while giving away a camo uni.

    I hate the camo uni’s almost as much as Paul, but let’s not pretend “soldiers” are the ones championing this idea of doing this silly stuff.

    “I will raffle off this jersey today, provided that the winner is willing to make (and can show proof of having made) a $25 donation to the Peace Corps, thereby symbolizing that not all soldiers are heroes and not all heroes are soldiers.”

    So a $25 donation to the Peace Corps symbolizes that not all soldiers are heroes and not all heroes are soldiers. I get it. Thanks.

    Wherever there are people, there is evil to be found.

    Brian Ross Investigates: The Peace Corps Sex Assault Scandal and Osama’s Diary – link

    What Happened to the Peace Corps? – link

    Peace Corps Worked to Keep Scandal Quiet – link

    “thereby symbolizing that not all soldiers are heroes and not all heroes are soldiers.”

    I don’t know why Paul feels the need to write this?

    I’ve been writing it for months — it’s my standard explanation of why I’m opposed to the sports world’s relentless celebration of the military to the exclusion of all other sectors of society.

    so when corporate sponsor cram their cranks down our gullets it’s bad, i am on board with that 100%. it really does stink that every writer for espn has to say rose bowl by vizio rather then just rose bowl just to appease. it does indeed rot that writers are forced to use corpo names rather then gator or citrus because the lawyers make them. damn straight. unfortunately, as i see it you are now doing the same thing? your choices are not horrible, baseball hat bowl? a fine name, but i personally call it the gotham bowl. but sport bar bowl? your killing me, i am laughing so hard tears are rolling down my cheeks. i’ll still call it the copper bowl. i am not a writer here so i don’t have a dog in the fight, and you know i sincerely love you to pieces, but your fascist style guide sucks as bad as the bowl names. you should mockingly call them what you want, but so should everyone else. that’s my 2 worthless loonies anyway.

    you should mockingly call them what you want, but so should everyone else.

    I couldn’t agree more. Everyone is free to call them whatever they like. But Uni Watch will be calling them the names spelled out in today’s post.

    bully for uni watch. i get what you are doing, i just find it silly for someone so clever, and fascist for someone so anti-fascist. so i am calling you on it… *tweet* double freaking dribble on #7.

    Careful, Moose — fascist is fighting words.

    Is the oxford comma fascist? Is the AP style guide fascist? Is capitalization fascist? (Well, I know your answer to that one.)

    Style rules are just a means of establishing consistency, and consistency is a communicative aid. Once I decided not to use the corporate names, I figured I’d better have a consistent set of alternate names — in part so the readers could know what I’m talking about, and in part so *I* can keep track of what I’m talking about.

    and hells yeah capitalization is fascist. why should the first letter of a sentence get singled out as bigger then the rest? what did that letter do other then being “born” in the right spot? nothing, that letter earned nothing, but he gets all the privilege and glory? stupid capital letters, i hate their entitlement. i’m bigger then you and you can eat me because of the “rules of the game” that allow me to be bigger, suck on it. caps are fascist maaaaan.

    Slow down, there, grand Ro-bare (as the French would say). Those two worthless loonies aren’t really worthless. Had you said two Canadian pennies, we’d be talking the same thing since Canada abolished the penny. :o)

    Wait, that may be fascist too! lol

    hopefully, and i think he does, paul knows i am sort of kidding here. and should mention i use a loonie for my coin flips in football games, and given the choice betwixt heads and loons, people always choose loons.

    Capitalization is not fascist! This country’s liberties are founded on the proposition that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, and that We will capitalize Any damn Word we want to, especially Nouns, but sometimes we Will capitalize Gosh-Darned adjectives too.

    Now, telling another man that he must capitalize more, or less, or differently, that’s fascist, I’ll grant you that. But capitalizing the Words of one’s Choice is the very Essence of Liberty!

    i’ll still call it the copper bowl

    I’m a huge college football fan, and looking at Paul’s list, I have absolutely no idea which one used to be the Copper Bowl. From the context of your post, it’s probably the BWW Bowl. But that’s just a guess on my part.

    michigan plays kansas state in the copper bowl. that’s the easy part, but now i have to look at the damn sponsor name, which i wouldn’t have done otherwise to know they are selling crappy chicken and cheap beer so i can call it by it’s right proper uw name sports bar bowl.

    One of the things I like about Uni-Watch is the Paul is pretty damn straight forward most of the time. If you’re being an asshole Paul is going to call you out on it. So I find it tiresome that we have to print out a list or memorize 30-some-odd silly bowl names when everything is usually straight forward here, one of the reasons I like this site is Pauls style, and he totally breaks from that with this sillyness. BCS bowls I’d call by their historic name, Peach bowl, etc. Less known bowls by an abbreviation of their name, Meineke bowl, etc. So no, I’m never going to know what Paul is talking about when he says We Don’t Even Have a Football Team But Somehow We’re Sponsoring This Bowl game. Silly and tiresome in my opinion. I’d just call them by what we’ll know them as. As well, I find it terrible writers heve to refer to these games like they do. Sounds so unnatural and contrived on both counts.

    We Don’t Even Have a Football Team But Somehow We’re Sponsoring This Bowl

    I don’t like that one either, but I’m genuinely puzzled by National University sponsoring a bowl game. From what I can tell, they don’t even have an athletics program!

    As for the rest of your critique, Tom, I hear ya, and I sympathize.

    Nah, it’s brilliant. Athletics programs, including football and men’s basketball, are money-losers for nearly all colleges and universities. I know, college ADs and alumni booster clubs claim otherwise, but every serious economic study of the sector has demonstrated that for all but a small handful of programs in the nation, even the “cash cow” programs are loss centers. So sponsoring a college athletic competition, but not fielding a team, is kind of genius. You get as much of the national notice that money can buy, but it’s a one-time ad buy from your existing marketing budget, not an ongoing resource-draining program.

    Note that NU is a private, for-profit institution. Boosters like to talk about what revenue-generators big-time men’s athletics is, but it’s funny how colleges that actually have to make a profit pretty much never have football or basketball teams. I guess government bureaucrats at giant state agencies make more rational business decisions than private entrepreneurs who have to answer to shareholders, or something.

    Why not call it the gratuitously for-profit university bowl? That’s what NAU always smacks of for me.

    Oh, agreed, TH, though that’s the least of the problems with for-profit universities. At least a quarter of real, not-for-profit colleges are pay-for-play diploma mills, too. But the profit motive is not entirely without virtue, even in the education space. At the very least, the fact that a for-profit university chooses not to do something ought to suggest that the thing in question is not, in fact, a reliable revenue source or profit center for an educational institution. Plenty of things a university ought to do will lose money, which is part of why for-profit higher education is so problematic. But if a chief justification for a program is that it brings in money to the school, the fact that for-profit schools aren’t doing that program should be a giant red flag.

    You probably already knew this, but I just learned that the name of the humongo stadium/dome the Arizona Cardinals play in, the University of Phoenix Stadium, is so named because the school paid to name the done that. The University of Phoenix doesn’t even have a football team, yet they pay big bucks for the stadium naming rights.

    The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl is the one that I personally favor calling by its official name, for precisely the reason that there is such a thing as a link that could be used to serve Tostitos.

    A shame that Homer Laughlin doesn’t sponsor that game, which would make it the Fiesta Fiesta Bowl.

    I missed the memo that Kraft was no longer corporately sponsoring the football game that fights hunger.

    I know portions of Kraft have undergone “restructuring” in the past year. The fight against hunger must have been a budget casualty.

    If the “fight against hunger” is still a priority, what’s with all these obese kids running around?

    Maybe Kraft is still sponsoring it, but they took thier name off of it because they felt it was more important to get the “Fight Hunger” message out there then their corporate name. Nah, that can’t be it.

    My limited understanding is that bowl games were originally organized by local organizations, primarily looking to promote the region and stimulate the local economy. Today many are run under the umbrella of a nonprofit organization whose goal is likely to maximize revenue. Again, with my limited knowledge, I understand ESPN is now a corporate owner and operator of a number of bowl games (more than one hand’s worth, but less than two hands?). I would think running a bowl game, especially the bigger games, is not a cheap undertaking. None of the operators are in it to lose money. You state that the corporate sponsor has changed the name of the bowl game. Seems to me it takes two to tango. The corporate sponsors are doing no more than the bowl owner/operator allows. Heck, in ESPN’s case the bowl owner/operator is a major corporation. I’m betting ESPN was more then willing to name a bowl after some other corporation that ponies up the cash. I’d bet the games that are purely named after corporations are likely to be ESPN run. So why are the guys who renamed the game the primary bad guys? If you let someone else name your kid, and then others decided the name is crass, aren’t there two people to blame?

    You state that the corporate sponsor has changed the name of the bowl game. Seems to me it takes two to tango. The corporate sponsors are doing no more than the bowl owner/operator allows.

    Please go back and re-read what I wrote about bowl organizers forfeiting their claim to any dignity once they sell their game’s name to the highest bidder.

    While browsing the NHL patches site, I came across what has to be the smallest black armband in sports history: link

    It was worn in the 1984-85 season, in memory of Michael Duffett, who was the Sabres’ director of scouting.

    Has anyone seen a smaller on-uniform memorial?

    While browsing the NHL Patches site, I came across the smallest black armband I’ve ever seen:
    link

    It was worn in 1985 in memory of the Sabres late director of scouting.

    Have you ever seen a smaller memorial patch?

    Wow — that’s really something!

    The thing is, even though it’s tiny, I’m sure it was very noticeable, because of its front/center placement. Great example of how less can be more.

    Sorry to say this, Paul, but the no-corporate-name-on-every-bowl ship sailed a long time ago and will NEVER return to the dock. I know you wanna see this become more common, but it’s not gonna happen. The people who run the bowls aren’t forfeiting their dignity. They have to see the business side at some point. Remember that money talks and bullshit runs the 200 meters.

    I see where you’re coming from, but these bowls (incl. the minor ones) aren’t cheap to run and they do have to sustain themselves somehow. The Seattle Bowl’s suits would probably have loved to have a corporate sponsor so they didn’t have to have the NCAA put their bowl 6 ft. under. That bowl even tried to get USF, my alma mater, to pay $1M in order to play in it due to the financial problems. USF thankfully turned the bowl down for obvious reasons.

    these bowls (incl. the minor ones) aren’t cheap to run and they do have to sustain themselves somehow.

    You are assuming (a) that all of these bowls need to exist in the first place, and (b) that any and all means of “sustaining themselves” are self-justifying.

    Neither of those things is true.

    So, because some of these bowls need to sell their naming rights in order to stay afloat, that means they don’t deserve to exist? I know that there are many people that think there are too many bowls but there are a lot of people who work extremely hard over the course of the season just for the chance to go things like the “Little Caesar’s bowl”, even if you think it’s stupid.

    Also, Paul, you’re outright wrong with your previous comment. For a business, any means of sustaining itself, as long as it’s within the bounds of the law, is self-justified. The point of running a business is to stay in business. You selling ad space to keep your blog alive is, to me, no different than selling the name of a bowl to keep the bowl in business.

    For a business, any means of sustaining itself, as long as it’s within the bounds of the law, is self-justified. The point of running a business is to stay in business.

    The great thing about capitalism is that it essentially critiques itself.

    Paul, I don’t understand this comment. To me this is a total non-sequitur and not really constructive to this discussion. Kind of makes me wonder how interested you are in having a dialogue on this subject.

    OMG! That uni (heretofore unknown to me) rockets right into the Top Ten. Wow. Thanks, Chance. Thanks, Ebbets.

    Dear Santa,

    I’ve been nice. Mostly. Could you please send me…

    William Devane actually played Kelly Leak’s long lost dad in “The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training.” Rob S is on the right track :)

    That may be an original press pin design, transcribed by an embroidery machine into that patch. That’s about it.
    As far as patches go, I know the first hat patches for the World Series were in 1996, so jersey patches were probably much much closer to 1996 than 1925.

    I think a lot of the Emblem Source’s patches fall into that category, unfortunately. That doesn’t make them any less attractive, but they’re not really authentic or historical, at least not as patches.

    I’m personally of the opinion that you should call all the bowls with long-standing/original names by those names minus the sponsor.

    Same goes for famous bowls that have recently dropped their name.

    As in stop calling it the Chicken Sandwhich Bowl, and call it the Peach Bowl, it never should have lost the name in the first place and I am glad that the name will be returning soon.

    You should call it the Gator Bowl, Sun Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Music City Bowl, etc. By tying these bowls to their sponsor I feel like you are being somewhat counter productive.

    I mean this year you have provided us with a key so we don’t have to do the research when you mention them, but in year’s past seeing your names has often caused me to look up who is sponsoring the bowl. With the Key that should cut down on that for regular readers, but general traffic will not know about this.

    Essentially you unwittingly manage to advertise for these companies (granted not necessarily in the way they want the media to do so).

    Some of these names are unavoidable, as the bowls have either never had established names, they have only had a sponsor attached to them, or they were created recently (Pinstripes Bowl). For instance I think the Russel Athletic Bowl should be called the *Insert Corporate Sponsor Here* Bowl (as it was founded as the Blockbuster Bowl, and has never actually had a name other than whoever is sponsoring it).

    I think it would be much more effective to simply call these bowls by their original names, and have people discover the ugliness brought on by corporate sponsors when they see the logos/patch pictures that you link to, instead of bringing more attention to the corporate sponsor and forcing people to research what bowl you are talking about.

    Paul’s critique of the College Bowl Games is pretty funny. And I hate it too. But to mock a business from trying to make money from a guy who runs a site dedicated to uniforms while on a Copyrighted website (and partner of USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties) and has advertisement on both left and right of the ticker and in between posts is sort of hypocritical?

    But that’s apples vs oranges a bit. Maybe someday we will not have links to the site to a big giant corporation that Paul also works for. Maybe someday, this will be branded as ESPN’s UniWatch, or UniWatch by USA TODAY.

    Remember that bowl organizations aren’t businesses “trying to make money”. They’re non-profit organizations.* Paul has never pretended to run a charity.

    *Forgetting for a moment that the non-profit status is basically a tax dodge for the corporate honchos.

    **Also, copyright protection has nothing to do with making money. All intellectual property, whether it’s a magazine article or a selfie on your mobile phone or a letter you write to your grandma, is copyrighted regardless of profit motive.

    Paul was clear that he wished to mock the corporate sponsors (“My intent here is not just to mock the sponsors but to mock the entire bowl-naming process.”). I’m guessing that Robert S. was referring to that.

    I guess I’m having trouble seeing the OMG HYPOCRISY LOL!!!11!!!! here. How is the corporate takeover of the very identities of nominally charitable organizations comparable to trying to run a business?

    I don’t see Paul criticizing advertising displays at the games or charging for tickets so the beer guy and the ticket takers can get paid. I’m really having trouble understanding how talking about uniforms is akin to rebranding a nonprofit event for the sake of a sponsor.

    Yes, it’s exactly the same thing — because I have lots of revenue streams, like selling tickets and selling broadcast rights and selling overpriced food and charging for parking, just like the bowl games do … so there’s no reason for me to have advertising on this site that you get to read for free.

    You make the same mistake that many others have made over the years: You think I’m opposed to advertising. That is false. I am simply opposed to advertising where it doesn’t belong.

    I would happily get rid of all the advertising on Uni Watch if you’d be willing to pay for Uni Watch’s content. What do you say?

    It would be more accurate to criticize you for being hypocritical IF the website’s name was changed to something like “Nike’s Uniwatch” or “Uniwatch presented by Addidas.” Simply having ads on a website is not the same thing.

    I’d really appreciate some clarification as to where advertising “belongs” and where it “doesn’t belong,” because to me, the distinction is vague. I don’t see why it’s okay to have advertising signs next to the field, but you can’t have ads on the field itself. I don’t understand why it’s okay to have ads for little Caesar’s at every commercial break but it’s not okay to name the bowl game itself after Little Caesar’s. I don’t understand why it’s okay to have banner ads on a sports blog but it’s not okay to have banner ads on a sports jersey. Some clarification would be appreciated as to where you stand on this issue.

    How about this: Media being supported by advertising is a model that’s been around for, oh, a few centuries now.

    And that includes media that you pay for (magazines, newspapers, many cable networks, etc.).

    This here website is free — I give the content away. No advertising = zero income. I think most reasonable people would say that makes advertising on this site pretty acceptable (if not ideal).

    Still, I have standards. Almost every day I turn down requests for paid links in my articles, for video ads, etc., because I don’t want any part of those things.

    I would prefer that Uni Watch not have any ads at all. And we could do that if we switched to a paid-content model. What do you say, Petros — wanna pay your fair share, instead of sponging off the internet media welfare state?

    Well, gee, thanks for the clarification… I mean, not. I asked you a direct question about what your standards are and your response is, “well I have standards, I swear!” Okay, since you didn’t respond last time, I’ll try again. Where is the line? What are the standards? What is the defining line between acceptable advertising and unacceptable advertising? I agree with you about this site. I think that ads here are totally acceptable. But I also think that naming a bowl game after a chicken sandwich chain or a line of car care products is totally acceptable as well. I’m curious to see what your rationale is for opposing certain forms of advertising but not others.

    And before you say something like “well I’ll pull ads from Uni watch if you’re willing to pay for it!!” just don’t, it’s a straw man argument. I’ve never been opposed to advertising on this site or any others, and I’m not willing to pay for content here. I generally have a much less cynical view of advertising than you do.

    And before you say something like “well I’ll pull ads from Uni watch if you’re willing to pay for it!!”…

    I already said that, but I guess you didn’t read what I wrote.

    I think we all have our own ideas and draw our own lines about what is and isn’t acceptable (regarding many things, not just about advertising). You may draw the line in a different place than I do, and that’s fine. For myself — and therefore on my website — I tend to draw it when advertising encroaches into civic space, or teaches children to be consumers instead of citizens, or makes (or tries to make) people say objectively absurd newspeak like “Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl,” or when it feels like the advertising tail is wagging the content dog, or when the Nike swoosh becomes more important than the logo of the team that’s wearing it, among other things.

    Am I perfectly consistent about these standards? Probably not. If you’re looking for gotcha moments, I’m sure you’ll find them. But in so doing, you’ll be focusing on me instead of addressing the larger issue, which is that advertising and corporate branding have assumed outsized roles in American life. Or at least I think they have. If you disagree — and it sounds like you do — that’s fine. But on my site, I’ll continue to critique what I see as a major issue.

    ‘I already said that, but I guess you didn’t read what I wrote.’

    I did read what you wrote. I also saw that you said the same thing to somebody else here in this same thread. So I wrote that just so you could avoid having to repeat yourself a third time.

    Anyway, thank you for your response. I’m not interested in arguing with you on this subject, I’m interested in having discussion. I’m no trying to change your views or get you into any “gotcha” moments, I think that’s immature and doesn’t contribute to a productive discussion. I’m just trying to pick our brain a little more and determine more specifically what your views are. I will say that I disagree with you on one of your points, where you said that that advertising and corporate branding have assumed outsized roles in American life. I don’t see it this way. Yes, it gets tiresome being bombarded with ads, but I also am able to see how advertising makes life better and more affordable for many people. But that’s just my two cents and if you think I’m a moron for thinking the way I do, that’s your prerogative.

    perhaps if the sponsors were to offer to pay Paul (and everyone else) to advertise their brand by using the branded name when talking about the Bowls, they’d have more sympathy. Money talks and bullshit walks, and we ain’t seen any money yet :p

    If it were just as simple as that…

    The sponsors would prefer to just do what they do now – buy the naming rights they have now, and then bully everyone else into using them.

    It’s still not as horrific as Brand Exclusion Zones, though.

    I have a new ESPN column today (which I thought was going up tomorrow), looking at the surprisingly large number of uni-centric events on the upcoming calendar:
    link

    (posted this in a thread on a different topic by mistake)

    In the video of Busby’s no-hitter — does anyone else think his jersey color and front lettering looks more washed-out than that of teammates? Especially at 0:45, next to the player on the right of the screen. That player’s uni looks brighter, both the blue and the white lettering, and in addition, the lettering looks LARGER than Busby’s. What do you think?

    -Jet

    That washed-out look might be due to someone pointing a light directly at Busby’s chest, probably to help that film cameraman seen at the end of the clip.

    I don’t really see the difference in lettering. This film was shot from a long way away, and telephoto lenses have a tendency to distort/compress images.

    Ah, Steve Busby. One of my childhood heroes. He blew out his elbow (IIRC) the season after this, and never really recovered.

    I posted a link to a photograph of Nelson Mandela in Yankees cap and jacket yesterday, and I figured this was after his event at Yankee Stadium. But then I noticed the Washington Post script in the background. Turns out, link.

    So objecting to the relentless spread of corporate influence in American life and not wanting to go along with bullshit corporate newspeak is childish?

    I see.

    No but trying to force your opinions to the point that it makes reading posts downright unreadable is. That’s one of the many reasons why I’ve stopped coming here less and less. Yes, we understand that you don’t like corporate sponsors on bowls. Yes, we understand that you don’t like ads on jerseys. Yes, we understand that you don’t like camo jerseys and similar things. But when you come to this site every morning and I have to read something about your displeasure practically once a day now it just gets old. At this point you should just put the ticker on another site and make it more news centric. That I would read every single day.

    Automotive Lubricants and Fluids Bowl?

    How about the

    “Check that Leak, Sir?” Bowl ?

    (You youngsters ask your parents about what it was like to fend off service station attendants assistance while five different colors of fluid dripped from under the hood during a fill-up.)

    >>Our intent with the Naming Wrongs series wasn’t just to mock the system of corporate naming rights but to provide hometown fans with a way of reclaiming what had been taken from them.>>
    My beef with naming wrongs is that I don’t find using the old stadium’s name appropriate when the old stadium is entirely torn down. I don’t mind the Bulls & Blackhawks calling their stadium the United Center instead of Chicago Stadium, because Chicago Stadium isn’t where they play. Chicago Stadium was across the parking lot from the where the UC stands, it was unique venue that had a much different vibe and experience for the viewer than the Uniter Center does. Calling United Center by Chicago Stadium’s name is just a misnomer.
    That’s why I scratch my head whenever I see your “I’m Calling it Shea” or “I still call it Comiskey.” The Mets don’t play in Shea Stadium anymore and the White Sox don haven’t played in Comiskey Park since 1990. In those cases I could still get behind calling it something other than the advertising name–perhaps the shirts should say “I’m calling NEW Shea Stadium” and “New Comiskey” ?
    And yes, for the record, I don’t think the Yankees current home should be called “Yankee Stadium.” Yankee stadium was completely demolished. Call this was “the Bronx Ballpark.”

    White Sox don haven’t played in Comiskey Park since 1990

    Nope, it was called Comiskey Park until 2003.

    As for Citi Field and Yankee Stadium (II), they were essentially built on the same sites, and wouldn’t have ended up there if not for the old stadiums, so I have no issue with keeping the old name.

    >>White Sox don haven’t played in Comiskey Park since 1990
    Nope, it was called Comiskey Park until 2003.>>
    Quite true! From 1990 until 2003 I called it “New Comiskey” —a practice that never really caught on among Chicago sports fans.

    >>As for Citi Field and Yankee Stadium (II), they were essentially built on the same sites, and wouldn’t have ended up there if not for the old stadiums, so I have no issue with keeping the old name.>>

    Fair point. I agree with your thinking in situations like the current incarnation of Soldier Field, or the Yankee Stadium-post renovation in the mid 1970s. If its on the same site, and has most of the same basic shell or significant structure the old name can stay. However, when the new stadium is a totally new building —even if its just next door–I think it should be a new name. That’s my two cents at least.

    I’m happy to agree to disagree on the same site/new stadium question.

    I basically follow the conventions of link and link – if the location is the same and the purpose is the same, then the soul of the building remains the same. Or in the case of the Madison Square Garden, it’s MSG no matter how many times it’s moved away from Madison Square.

    Agreed completely, that’s always been the one thing that’s slightly irked me about the “I’m Calling it Shea” or “I’m Calling it Mile High”. If the team never played in that particular building, the “I’m still calling it” argument doesn’t hold water. If you still want to call it Jack Murphy Stadium for the Chargers instead of Qualcomm, I’m all in favor of that, but you can’t refer to it that way if you’re talking about the Padres and you have issues with the name Petco Park.

    The “Mile High” crowd here in Denver drives me nuts with that as well. Mile High Stadium was knocked down and demolished. If you don’t want to call it “Sports Authority Field” or “Invesco”, that’s fine, but the building itself never was “Mile High Stadium”, so it shouldn’t be referred to it as though it was. I personally think they should go way back instead of “Sports Authority” and throwback to the name that “SA” used to be before the family sold out…..they should call it “Garts”

    Any ideas for what the Bronco’s current home should be called? Might be fun for the uniform aficionado community to come up with names for stadiums that have only had annoying advertiser names in their history.

    You’re forgetting about (or maybe never knew) how “I’m Calling It Shea” started.

    When it turned out that Citibank was (a) the Mets’ new stadium sponsor and (b) a huge beneficiary of the 2008 federal bailout, lots of people started coming up with new names for the ballpark: Debits Field, Debtor’s Stadium, Bailout Field, etc. There were TONS of these names bouncing around NYC.

    So the No Mas guys and I said, “Fuck it — we’re calling it Shea.”

    Funny story!As a Chicago fan I have kinda trained myself to think of the United Center as meaning United as in “United States of America” and not the airline. Do Mets fans ever try squint and think of their team’s home park as City Field (as in New York City) instead Citi as in Citibank?

    I’m still a bit bothered that neither Philly’s NFL or MLB venues are named Veterans Stadium, but at least the original dedication plaque was given a respectful (if not prominant) new location, and the Philadelphia MLB team dedicated a new memorial honoring all veterans “who have defended America’s freedom since its inception in Philadelphia, July 4, 1776”.
    I was also sad to see the name “Spectrum” retired and disappointed to see what Ed Snider turned that site into after its’ demolition.

    Note to the Phillies: July 4, 1776 was not the “inception” of America’s freedom. That’s the date of America’s national independence, but independence was declared in order to preserve the freedom that Americans already enjoyed and felt to be under assault by imperial authorities.

    I’ll never call where Georgia Tech plays basketball anything but Alexander Memorial Coliseum, AMC, or the Thrillerdome.

    I appreciate Hank McCamish’s contributions (donations) to the school and the fact that they were able to provide needed renovations to the Thrillerdome, but the most iconic part of AMC (the roof) is still in tact. Not only is the most iconic part still integral to the coliseum’s construction it also was the brain child of William Alexander (a roof that required no support beams that would obstruct the view of patrons, at the time it was a unique piece of architecture).

    This is a rare occasion where the naming wrong did not come from a corporate sponsor (though for a brief time McDonald’s had a partnership, but the name was tacked on to the end as opposed to preceding it), but from a person. Money was still the motivating factor, as the donor had no hand in the success of the athletics program (as opposed to when our football stadium was renamed Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field).

    Alternatively my alma mater, Kennesaw State, recently signed a naming deal for our soccer stadium and future football stadium (2015), with Fifth-Thirds Bank. While I prefer the name of the stadium have something to do with the school, the previous name was the KSU Soccer Stadium, so its not like the name was a downgrade. If I ever make enough money you can bet I will donate to the school with the provision that the field be given a new name.

    The New Era Pinstripe Bowl – Gang Hats of the Evil Empire Bowl [kudos to Phil Mushnick for inspiration]

    Upon further review, I’ve come to the conclusion that I could just rename at least 25 of these games the “I Don’t Give A Fuck Bowl”, because I really don’t care about most of these games. I’m not a college football fan, I’m a Michigan fan, so really, games in relation to Michigan or its rivals are the only ones that bear any significant meaning to me. Hell, even the ex-Copper Bowl would be an IDGAF Bowl if Michigan wasn’t in it.

    For the ex-Peach Bowl, I’m personally going with “Homophobic Sponsor Bowl”, because I don’t even want to reference their product (and I find pickles on sandwiches disgusting anyway). I’m going to stick with the “Five-Dollar Pizza Bowl” and the “GET TO DA CHOPPA BOWL!”, mainly just for shits and giggles, while adding the “You Can’t Spell ‘Citrus’ Without ‘U-T’ Bowl” for the same reason. I’ll still use Rose, Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, and Cotton, but beyond that, it’s all “IDGAF” to me.

    Instead of the GoDaddy Bowl or Web Hosting Bowl, why not just name it for GoDaddy’s CEO most recent faux pas (and no matter how much they spun it, the faux pas never went away). Let us just call it the Dead Elephant Bowl.

    I would’ve gone with Service Outage Bowl or They’re Pulling That “Our Ad Was ‘Banned’ From the Super Bowl for Being ‘Too Hot'” Stunt Again Bowl.

    That 1956 A’s video is the best 20 minutes I’ll spend today!

    However, there was a discrepancy. The video shows all their home opener festivities, then goes on to show the A’s scoring 14 runs in an inning, all on two outs.

    Checking Retrosheet, they actually lost the home opener vs. Chicago; the big inning happened in their second game of the home stand.

    AND, according to the Retrosheet boxscore, there were only 13 runs scored in the inning, not 14 as mentioned in the video.

    link

    -Jet

    Well, I don’t care about pro wrestling, and we usually don’t cover it here, so I felt the need (or really just a whim) to qualify it.

    He does this for a number of things that he doesn’t usually keep track of.

    It’s not an indictment of wrestling fans in any way

    Well, they’re not so much athletes as they’re actors in a sports-themed soap opera/roadshow who perform athletic feats.

    The discussion about bowl game names made me think of something I hadn’t previously considered very much. “Bowl” originally referred to stadiums such as the still-in-use Yale Bowl, but eventually became the name of the game itself in the 1920s when the Rose Bowl was built in Pasadena. How many bowl games were also stadia? Rose, Cotton, Orange and Sugar immediately come to mind.

    Thanks for the other examples. What’s really interesting is that there’s cases the stadium begat the game name and cases in which it’s the other way around.

    Corporate Bowl names suck and I wish they still carried their original names. I’ve read somewhere that the Chic Fil A Bowl will have to revert to it’ more recent past and become the Chic Fil A Peach Bowl for consistency in branding once the playoffs begin.

    Paul I’m just curious as to where you drew the line on your naming system. Fighting Hunger is great but the bowl has always carried a name of a sponsor in it’s current and previous incarnations but gets a pass on your system. Whereas the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl gets the mocking name treatment(though still a name for a potato), where as far as I can tell it’s merely run by a coalition of potato farmers no differently than the early agriculturally named bowls. Not an insult to your system, just curious as to how you drew some of the tougher lines.

    Fighting Hunger is great but the bowl has always carried a name of a sponsor in it’s current and previous incarnations but gets a pass on your system.

    It did not “get a pass”; it doesn’t have a naming sponsor this year. (If Kraft were still sponsoring it, I’d probably call it the Processed Food Bowl.)

    I don’t see why Famous Idaho Potato should be exempt, any more than Ocean Spray Cranberries would be exempt if they sponsored a bowl. They’re taking a commodity product and trying to brand it. That’s their prerogative, but why should the rest of us have to play along with that game?

    Fair enough, I hadn’t realized that Kraft was no longer a title sponsor to the event but I still disagree on the Potato Bowl. The difference is the game isn’t trying to brand a commodity product but rather promoting a product in general. The Multinational Potato Producing Company Potato Bowl is much different than the Idaho Potato Commission sponsoring a game to promote Idaho Potatoes in general not a corporate entity. It’s no different than the origins of the Cotton Bowl, Tangerine Bowl etc.

    The difference is the game isn’t trying to brand a commodity product but rather promoting a product in general.

    Oh really? Tell that to the potato farmers in Maine.

    That’s an interesting perspective I hadn’t thought of it that way. So the real sticking point is the “Famous Idaho” in the name? Had the committee that renamed the Humanitarian Bowl dubbed it the Potato Bowl it would be a different story? When I hear Orange Bowl even with its bullshit corporate name I think Florida Oranges because the game is held in Miami. Now we run into the same problem with California orange growers as we do with our Maine potato farmers. So that means unless you name a bowl game after the city/state/area (Texas Bowl) it’s held in or after a cause (Fighting Hunger)it’s impossible to have a name that isn’t open to ridicule?

    Bowls named after corporations (BWW, GoDaddy etc) are bullshit, just as slowly changing the name of a bowl thinking no one will notice (Peach->Chic Fil A Peach->Chic Fil A) and the same as slapping a sponsor in front of an existing classic name (Allstate Sugar) but I have to disagree and I have no problem with a game presented by a local farm coalition trying to support a product the state is synonymous with.

    Famous Idaho® is not a local farm coalition, but a registered trademark and the consumer-facing brand owned by the Idaho Potato Commission, an Idaho state agency.

    So a more appropriate generic name would be Local Government Bureaucracy Bowl.

    Wasn’t the full name of the Citrus Bowl actually the Florida Citrus Bowl, or was that just for a portion of its life? Or am I just misremembering?

    To answer my own question, it seems the actual stadium is called the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium, and has been so called since 1983.

    I think the stadium thing should have the line drawn at the point where – as long as it is the original stadium – I’m still going to refer to it by that name. Jack Murphy (SD), Joe Robbie (Miami), Jacobs Field (Cleveland), Jack Kent Cooke (Washington), and the like. Shea wasn’t simply renamed Citi Field. It’s a completely different structure. Even stuff like Cardinals Stadium instead of the University of Phoenix Stadium or Cleveland Browns Stadium instead of First Energy Stadium. Those were the original names. Same thing with Cowboys Stadium and the New Meadowlands Stadium.
    Between Joe Robbie and Candlestick Park, how many different corporate names have they had in the last 20 years? Imagine being stranded on an island all this time and find out that a Super Bowl was played at LandShark Stadium (Can’t recall if it was actually called that the year a Super Bowl was played there). But if you tell the person ‘Joe Robbie Stadium,’ you’d likely have the ‘ah-haaaah’ moment.

    By the way, Paul, “Heart of Dallas” is the name of the civic organization that puts on the bowl carrying that name. And they have a “Presented By” sponsor as well (another bank – I’m not bothering to go back to look it up).

    In other words, you could say a bowl committee has named its game after itself.

    Pittsburgh Penguins just revealed their first teaser for their outdoor game in Chicago!
    link
    With that teeny sliver of Vegas gold in the southwest corner of that photo, I will guess that the Penguins’ jerseys will have gold bodies with black shoulders, and maybe black wrists and/or lower arms.
    If true, it would be a cool color-on-color against Chicago’s likely red, but they better not both be wearing black helmets, because that is a technical error in my book. (Refs need to be able to count 5 on 5 fast.)

    LOVE the bowl renaming! I probably would have taken it a little further, but that would have required lengthier names, so they’re probably just right.

    Also, if you skipped over the “Santa rebrand” (in the Grab Bag portion of the ticker), do yourself a favor and check it out. I thought it was extremely funny.

    One of the best posts of year today. Good work Paul and staff.

    If anyone is interested in a more in-depth look at the bowls, check out the book “Death of the BCS”. It’s a couple of years old, but spends some time looking into the bowl setups. I was surprised to learn that while the bowls are run by non-profit groups, there are folks that make a lot of money (six figures) for doing very, very little.

    It’s a pretty disgusting practice actually.

    The new WrestleMania logo is specifically for WrestleMania 31 in 2015 in Santa Clara, CA. It also features a new WWE logo that will likely launch with the WWE Network sometime in 2014.

    Paul,

    Will you be using these bowl names for ESPN columns? I ask because ESPN always seems to use the full sponsored name on first reference in articles (i.e. Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO, always makes me laugh in disgust when I see it.)

    On my site I follow my style rules; when I write for other media outlets I follow their style rules (or if I don’t, the copy desk imposes them anyway, which is the copy desk’s job).

    New Mexico State center Sim Bhullar has added first initial to his NOB this season, even though he is the only Bhullar on the team.

    link
    link

    Last season:
    link

    Correction. His younger brother is a red-shirt freshman, and will be part of the active roster next season.

    regarding sponsorshipI’m finding it annoying as wellbut if someone comes along offering you millions and millions of cash to put their name on your product anybody in this world will do it.
    that’s why I find it confusing when people blame Alex Rodriguez for signing a 250 million dollar contract from the Texas Rangers please someone tell me who would turn that down

    watching the Blackhawks and Flyers,NBC just got a shot of a Blackhawks exec drinking out of a water bottle with a Chicago Bulls logo on it

    I guess Lukas better pray that ESPN never sponsors a bowl, eh?

    My, what a dilemma that would be for Mr. Profile in Courage.

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