February 24, 2015

SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 13 comments

Two good Grantland pieces: Charlie Pierce asks if the NFL is leaning on networks to not cover the Aaron Hernandez trial and how NBA teams are using creative contracts for 2nd round picks and D-League maybes to work around the salary cap:

"Alonzo Gee has been on five teams since early July. He became a punch line among NBA trade cognoscenti as his nonguaranteed $3 million contract for 2014-15 morphed into a trade chip teams used to clear cap space and facilitate complex transactions."

posted by yerfatma at 01:19 PM on February 24, 2015

Major helmet redesign in the works for the Cleveland Browns.

Orange is the new orange.

They are referring to the helmet as a "logo". Interesting. That means that Neil Patrick Harris' Oscar ceremony underwear is a logo.

Cue the footage of Crocodile Dundee brandishing a Bengals helmet and saying: "Oh, that's not a logo. THIS is a logo".

posted by beaverboard at 12:33 AM on February 25, 2015

They are referring to the helmet as a "logo". Interesting.

It's not the physical helmet the players are wearing that is the logo - they have a drawn version that is their actual logo. They don't put the logo on their helmet because then they'd get into a whole "helmets all the way down" drawing scenario and MC Escher seems above this kind of work.

posted by dfleming at 08:42 AM on February 25, 2015

I would love to have been a part of the consulting team that got paid 6 figures to come up with that logo.

posted by tahoemoj at 02:03 PM on February 25, 2015

Hey, if the folks behind the Buffalo, NY logo and slogan are any indication, you probably can just show up to some branding offices and say "I work here now" and start getting paid.

Two fonts, one which is horrific, and an animal that, while it shares the name, doesn't actually exist there. The opposite of real. Can't make this shit up.

posted by dfleming at 02:35 PM on February 25, 2015

Two fonts, one which is horrific

The capital B was designed to look like a pregnant woman's torso, then?

posted by tahoemoj at 02:49 PM on February 25, 2015

Think of how earth shattering even the first Cincy helmet was to Browns fans, with the understated "Bengals" logo. People in Cleveland must have thought Paul Brown had spent a week in Vegas with showgirls and substances to be able to come up with a departure that bold and imaginative.

The switch to the Bengal stripes motif must have driven Clevelanders to utter manic disorientation. There's a reason God put the city by the side of a lake instead of a river. Fewer bridges for people to jump off of.

The old Dawg Pound logo is far superior to the new one. By several orders of dawgnitude. They went from "Where is that Michael Vick motherfucker?" to "First they cut my balls off when I was asleep, now I need a root canal".

This much must be said: in the good old days, the Browns played in Municipal Stadium and wore all white at home. The weather was almost always terrible, and the grass field was almost always a mess. When you looked at Jim Brown or Leroy Kelly with their offensive linemen at the end of a game played in those conditions, you were looking at some truly bad ass old fashioned hard working football players. You could not read the numbers on their uniforms. What a vision of manly grit and endurance it was. I think the helmets were originally painted orange so Search and Rescue could locate players if a blizzard blew in off the lake.

posted by beaverboard at 03:07 PM on February 25, 2015

Two fonts, one which is horrific

This seems to be an attempt to create brand synergy with Buffalo Wild Wings.

posted by yerfatma at 03:27 PM on February 25, 2015

"helmets all the way down"

I've run into a few "NFL concept helmet" stories in the past couple weeks and my reaction to both has been "if you touch the Bengals helmet, I will cut you."

I actually didn't mind what they did with the background idea here :

The guy who did this series of concepts should probably stop.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:02 PM on February 25, 2015

I've run into a few "NFL concept helmet" stories in the past couple weeks and my reaction to both has been "if you touch the Bengals helmet, I will cut you."

posted by dfleming at 07:31 AM on February 26, 2015

Has Tony the Tiger always worn underwear?!

posted by tahoemoj at 11:05 AM on February 26, 2015

Tony lost a bet with Michael Phelps at a bong and cheeseburger party.

posted by beaverboard at 11:22 AM on February 26, 2015

Has Tony the Tiger always worn underwear?!

Perhaps Tony slapped some underwear on to appease Mrs. Tiger during the great Tiger infidelities of 2009.

posted by dfleming at 12:23 PM on February 26, 2015

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