If The NFL Were A Playlist…

If the NFL were a playlist and each team were a song, here are the titles…

AFC East

Buffalo Bills: “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” Rolling Stones

New England Patriots:  “Cheater, Cheater” Joey and Rorey

New York Jets: “There’s a New Kid in Town” The Eagles

Miami Dolphins: “Back Again” Boy Kill Boy

AFC North

Baltimore Ravens: “My Little Runaway” (says Cleveland) Del Shannon

Cincinatti Bengals: “Paper Tiger” Spoon

Cleveland Browns: “The Imposter” Elvis Costello

Pittsburgh Steelers: “We Are the Champions” Queen

AFC South

Houston Texans:  “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas, You’ve Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band,”  Alabama

Indianapolis Colts: “Baltimore”  Randy Newman

Jacksonville Jaguars: “Cat’s in the Cradle” Harry Chapin

Tennessee Titans: “Nashville Cats” Lovin Spoonful

AFC West

Denver Broncos: “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa My Hair” South Pacific

Kansas City Cheifs  “Cassels in the Air” Don McClean (“Castles in..)

Oakland Raiders: “Those Days are Gone”  dc3

San Diego Chargers: “Cry Me a River(s)” Justin Timberlake

NFC East

Dallas Cowboys: “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” George Strait

New York Giants: “Eli’s Comin” Three Dog Night

Philadelphia Eagles: “Time for me to Fly”  REO Speedwagon

Washington Redskins: “Indian Reservation”  Paul Revere and the Raiders

NFC North

Chicago Bears: “Bare Necessities”  Jungle Book

Detroit Lions: “If I Were the King of the Forest”  Wizard of Oz

Green Bay Packers: anything by The String Cheese Incident

Minnestoa Vikings: “My New Boyfriend”  Carly Simon

NFC South: 

Atlanta Falcons:  “Who Let the Dogs Out?”  Baha Men

Carolina Panthers: “Carolina in My Mind”  James Taylor

New Orleans Saints: “I’m a Loser”  The Beatles

Tampa Bay Bucs:  “Going Downhill Fast”  Divine Comedy

NFC West

Arizona Cardinals: “I’m Like a Bird”  Nelly Furtado

San Francisco Forty-Niners:  “Just Like Starting Over”  John Lennon

Seattle Seahawks:  “The Day Seattle Died”  Cold

St. Louis Rams: “Good in the Beginning”  12minds 

 

Top Ten Sports Journalists in My Lifetime, According to Me

In the interest of full disclosure, this list will be partisan. First, I’m from Buffalo. I did most of my radio sports listening in Buffalo and since leaving Buffalo have been exposed mostly to national level correspondents on the various networks, or in a couple of cases newspapers. Believe it or not, my exposure to two of my favorites has been through the Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio.

I list the sports writers and announcers who are able to earn my enjoyment and admiration partially because of their journalistic skill, partially because of their humor and personality, partially because of their outlook in some cases, and because of the way I feel about the sports or sports reporting and commentary I am receving from them.

So, here’s my list of the top ten sports journalists, or teams of journalists, in my lifetime.

The Buffalo Bills Should Bring Back The Throwback

The Buffalo Bills are a franchise with a rich, storied tradition. As one of the charter members of the American Football League, organized in 1959, they are  celebrating a half-century this year.

The first thing they should do to commemorate the occasion is return to their old look. (In their inaugural season they had silver helmets with no logo. That was look not memorable and wasn’t kept.) Beginning with their second season, they used the classic red grazing Buffalo on a white helmet with a center stripe, royal blue (home) jersey and white pants.

This uniform style has been revived on a limited basis by the team as a “throwback.” We strongly recommend that the new uniforms be thrown out and the throwback become the standard, forever more.

If it makes sense for marketing purposes, the team can wear one or two of the other variations at home games, on a given day, as “throwbacks,” but the original throwback should be the bring-back.

The old grazing buffalo is pure (as opposed to the flashy, charging one with speed-lines).  That retro look fits Buffalo, in the way Buffalo is eternally retro, always was retro before retro was retro, sort of iconic in a way that’s both quaint and a little musty.

Of course the speeding Buffalo represents the K-gun. Translate: hopes dashed, frustration, and serial frustration. Translate: “four-feat” (four-peat with defeat).

Back when the classic look was the only look, BIlls fans had dreams of making the Superbowl without the accompanying nightmares, without the creeping, nagging suspicion that the Bills may have morphed into the Cubs of the NFL. They had their innocence, their Superbowl viriginity.

In order to both make it to another Superbowl, and actually win one, it will be necessary to purge the team of the logo and the look that suffered four consecutive anti-climaxes and go back to the look that won Buffalo it’s only league championships.

More importantly, however, is the fact that an analysis of the correlation between maintaining a classic franchise identity and Superbowl appearances, shows that teams who have maintained or reverted to their original modern era look have both played in and won Superbowls at a dramatically higher rate than teams with frequent changes in colors, uniform styles and/or logo.

(See my article http://bleacherreport.com/articles/215108-assessing-the-importance-of-tradition-in-nfl-team-branding) 

It makes sense that newer franchises may benefit from changing their look with each new trend in iconography, however the teams with the tradition, Buffalo specifically (since most of the others already do), should reflect that tradition in their uniforms, helmets and in every aspect of their branding.

Curse Busting: Pieces of Buffalo Championship Sweep, Falling into Place

If you’re old enough to remember Deep Throat (the Watergate figure or the movie) you’re old enough to get the allusion, when I identify the mystery man who’s been contacting me about the Buffalo curse.

I call him Brave Throat. He’s been saying there’s a connection between the Braves leaving town the way they did, “Wide Right,” “In the Crease,” and the record-setting futility of the franchise that left Buffalo to become the Los Angeles Clippers.

Perhaps you’ve seen the article at ESPN.com by Bill Simmons that blames everything that went wrong with the Braves/Clippers franchise to the curse of the Indians.

He says that because the team was called the Braves, to honor the Indians and the Buffalo icon, the most sacred symbol for Native Americans, was included in the Braves logo, that as soon as Paul Snyder started talking about moving the Braves out of town, in 1977, all hell broke loose for the franchise.

My new best friend, Brave Throat, says there’s a lot of truth to Simmons’ theory, but there’s more to it than even that. (See my previous article, Breaking the Wide Right Curse…)

So what if he’s right? What if tearing down the Aud has released the tormented spirit of the Braves franchise and now that they’re out in the world, they can work their magic, bringing the franchise back to Buffalo and bringing a Superbowl title, a Stanley Cup, and yes, also an NBA crown to the city all in the same year?

If you haven’t read my column about my first interview with Brave Throat, follow the link above and get up to speed. Then follow the link below to the second interview.

The universe is realigning.  

Previous Article

Buffalo Needs a Sports Museum; They Already Have the Collection

John Boutet is a very interesting man. For most of his adult life, he has been collecting every piece of Buffalo sports memorabilia he can find.

This physical education teacher, is a classic example of following your passion. While he enjoys his day job, his true calling and passion is his avocation.

He is the owner and curator of Buffalo Sports Museum. Currently the museum exists only in cyberspace.

The display in the photo above is one small section of Boutet’s collection. The collection includes a variety of memorabilia from Buffalo teams mostly prior to the 80’s, Highlights of the collection are displayed at the virtual museum (see web link below).

Boutet has been lobbying to establish a Buffalo Sports Museum space for his collection for several years.

A few years ago he approached Buffalo Sabres management to request some unused space in the new HSBC Arena. They didn’t say no, but they also didn’t call back.

But this man is as persistent in his commitment to take the museum from the Internet and his home to a space worthy of the collection as he has been to compile the collection itself. He continues to look for allies and backers to help him establish the museum.

Link to the Buffalo Sports Museum:

http://www.buffalosportsmuseum.com/

A related project is the drive to enshrine the Buffalo Braves at HSBC Arena. Boutet was the first voice, many years ago, calling for the city to hang a banner and/or retire a jersey of the two most notable Buffalo Braves, local college star, Randy Smith, and NBA Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo. (See separate article about this campaign, linked below.) 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/211555-attempts-to-memorialize-the-buffalo-braves-at-hsbc-arena-ramp-up 

How To Break Buffalo’s Wide Right Curse: Bring the Braves Back

It all started with an article by an LA Clipper (formerly Buffalo Braves) writer at B/R who stated the Clippers are not loved in LA and cannot win there. He suggested the problem is location. He then suggested the team move out of the Staples Center, where they share accommodations with the Lakers and play in Anaheim.

That got some die-hard Braves fans thinking. Perhaps location means more than the other side of Greater LA. Perhaps it means retracing their tracks back to Buffalo.

If they never bonded with their new home, why not bring them back where they were loved and where they were winners—among the NBA elite for a few years at least?

With that, the movement was officially launched. Or so says the mystery man in a trench coat, big shades, and a Braves cap, who refused to identify himself. I had received a mysterious text message an hour earlier to meet him at what was left of the Aud in 60 minutes sharp. Alone.

“Yes, we realize it will be hard enough to keep the Bills from leaving without trying to bring back a franchise that has been gone for thirty years, but we think both are not only possible but necessary to fix the sports karma in Buffalo.”

“Necessary?” I asked.

“Yes. Think about it. When the Braves were ripped from Buffalo, the gutted franchise that left town and became the Clippers wasn’t the spiritual essence of the Braves. The true spirit of the Braves remained to haunt the Aud until it was torn down.

“Now that it’s down to a few feet of bricks, still standing, the ghosts of the Braves have been released into the atmosphere and they’re beginning to work their magic.”

“I don’t normally think of ‘magic’ and ‘ghosts’ in the same context. You’re saying they’re good ghosts, you know, like in the Wizard of Oz when Glinda asks Dorothy, ‘Are you a good witch or a bad witch?”

“Exactly. And since the Braves were a good team. How could their ghosts be bad? But think about it. Is it coincidence that the Aud starts coming down, the only book ever written about the Braves is released (Buffalo, Home of the Braves, by Tim Wendel. See my article about the book), Randy Smith dies, and then LA admits it never loved the Clippers? No this is synergy! Synchronicity! The universe is realigning!”

“Ok, I asked, but it’s been 30 years. Why should Bills fans care at this point? Half of them are too young to remember the Braves?”

“Two words,” my anonymous interviewee said to me, dead serious, with a penetrating stare. “Wide Right.”

“What?”

“And,” he went on, I have one for Sabres fans. “In the crease!”

“You mean the good ghosts weren’t completely up to good things. They jinxed all Buffalo teams?”

“No, not the ghosts,” he said. “Unless you mean the ghosts of John Y. Brown and Paul Snyder, but I’m pretty sure they’re both still alive.”

“Ok, I don’t get it.” I said.

“Look. When the Braves were ripped out of Buffalo, something happened to the city’s psyche, it’s soul. A city needs all the stars to be aligned perfectly to win a world championship. If even one star is out of whack the whole thing goes to hell. It’s like a clock with a missing gear.”

“So you mean bringing the Braves back to Buffalo would be putting the missing gear back into the clock?”

“Yup, he said.” And then you watch out. With all that pent up hope and passion and disappointment, look for a triple crown the following year.”

“You mean Lombardi, Stanley, and an NBA title all at once?”

“Better tell City Hall to stock up on tickertape and confetti,” he said.

And then a black limousine pulled up, picked him up, and sped off toward the Niagara Thruway.

Note: See also this author’s article about a possible Braves return, aimed at the Clippers and NBA audience.

John Wingspread Howell is the chief Chicago Red Stars correspondent, is a leading Women’s Professional Soccer correspondent, and covers the Buffalo sports and Underdog sports beats for Bleacher Report. 

Listen to Howell’s audio commentary on Randy Smith, the Aud, the Braves and Buffalo curses on NPR’s WBFO 88.7 or via web at www.wbfo.org on July 8 at 630 and 830 AM EDT.

Why the Buffalo Bills Will Win Super Bowl XLIV

I absolutely guarantee a Buffalo Bills World Championship at the end of the 2009 Season (2010 Superbowl).

How can I say this with all the other teams that appear so much more likely, when it’s not a given the Bills will even make the playoffs or even beat their 7-9 record of the past three seasons?

Will TO set a new touchdown reception record? Will Trent Edwards, with the help of TO end up the highest rated passer in the league? Will the draft reinforced defense resemble the great Bills defenses under Bruce Smith and Cornelius Bennett. Will a sleeper emerge, an undrafted free agent perhaps, who becomes the next marquis player?

Any of this could happen, or none of it. It doesn’t matter. This is why the Bills will win this year.

The first African American President was elected since the last Superbowl. The conventional wisdom of economics and finance is no longer operative. Every headline we’ve had in the US and the world is outside of tradition, of history, or the norm, of the old order.

There are demonstrations in the streets of Tehran saying death to the Ayatollah.

They are actually building the Bass Pro Shop in Downtown Buffalo.

There are no operative norms left in the nation or the world. And all of that, sets up the perfect storm to make the Bills World Champions.

Go Bills!    

An Open Letter to Brett Favre: Et Tu Brete?

Author’s Note: First let it be said that I am not a Packer fan. Some of my best friends are Packer fans. I used to live in Wisconsin. But that’s as far as it goes. This article is about the values of team sports and the role marquis players, especially, play in preserving their legacy with the team on which the legacy was created. I think the Favre issue is the quintessential example of the tension between individual pursuits and team loyalty. I welcome your comments.

Dear Brett,

It’s been rumored you’re thinking of un-retiring yet again, and playing for the Vikings. The Vikings, Brett? What are you thinking? Have you no self-respect? Have you no sense of loyalty, decency, honor?

All those years in Green Bay. You became the persona of the team, the icon, the hero. Even in your later years, the fans were patient and were thankful that you were still giving it your all.

So, why, after all of that, would you have any desire to play anywhere else? Doesn’t loyalty count for anything anymore?

I realize this letter is one year late, but the idea of you playing in Minnesota has prompted me to say what I should have said in the first place, a year ago: How could you?

It can’t be for the money. Or did your portfolio take such a dive at the end of ’07 that you just had to play for the Jets?

Whatever the reason, at least you did not play in your old division. Most of your fans could forgive you for going to New York.

But the Vikes, Brett? The sworn enemy of every Packer Fan? Well—you could go one degree worse than that and play for the Bears, but the Vikings are 99 percent as bad as the Bears from a Packer perspective.

Playing for the Vikings is like divorcing your wife and moving in with the bimbo next door. Not only do you disrespect your wife, you disrespect yourself.

The metaphor applies.

So, please, don’t do it, Brett. In fact, find a way to do penance for your past discretion by going to work for the Packers in some capacity. We can’t have that Jets uniform be our last mental picture of you. And as bad as that is, please don’t make us look at you in purple and gold.

Gold goes best with Green, Brett, you know that! C’mon now. Come back to your senses—and your sense of decency. Take my advice and let me save you from yourself.

You’ll thank me some day.    

Top Five Major League Underdog Towns, No. 3 (Tie) New Orleans and Green Bay

This is the third in a series of articles about the greatest underdog venues in U.S. pro sports. The criteria is simple: small-market towns, communities that get no respect, that personify the under-rated, that constantly challenge the giants of the world, and/or that have suffered some terrible devastation but are rebuilding.

 

Big Easy and Big Cheese. Frozen Tundra and Sultry Bayou. Lutheran Wisconsin and Catholic Louisiana. Lots of contrasts.

So why are these two towns tied in our rankings? In very separate but equal ways, they both compete in major league sports with significant obstacles.

Could they be combined differently? Of course. We could have combined Green Bay with Milwaukee and New Orleans with Oklahoma City, but after considering intangibles that influence ranking, it seemed that these two teams deserve to share the No. 3 spot for some different and some similar reasons.

Since we referenced New Orleans extensively in the Oklahoma City article, we’ll start with them. This city meets most of our underdog criteria.

As a community, they have lost significant population recently. They are a popular tourist destination yet have a staggering amount of poverty and blight in certain neighborhoods and did even before Katrina.

And of course, there’s Katrina. Had the Big Easy not qualified as an underdog by any other measure, the effects of Katrina would qualify them at least for a generation.

But there is more, much more. Despite being among the larger metro areas in the United States, New Orleans was slow to receive a major league franchise. Eventually they obtained the Saints and shortly after, the Jazz. 

Then they lost the Jazz. Despite the primacy of football in the region, the Jazz had a loyal following. It was a real blow to the city.

Recently they obtained the Hornets from Charlotte, but timing has impeded the city’s ability to fully adopt their new team, not least because the Hornets played in Oklahoma City for two years after the Hurricane.

But then, there’s the Saints, known for a few painful seasons as the “Aints.” If you’re over 40, you remember the thousands of fans in the Superdome wearing paper grocery bags over their heads with holes cut out for the eyes.

The New Orleans Saints have existed for 41 seasons and have yet to make a Super Bowl appearance. They have made only six playoff appearances in that time, winning only two.

Such a record of frustration and futility over such a long span would qualify New Orleans as an underdog town for at least a generation, even if they began to regularly make the playoffs and win more playoff games.

And still, each year the team is competitive in many games, pulls its share of upsets, and the fans remain loyal, with or without grocery bags.

The argument for Green Bay is much shorter. Obviously at first glance, one might question the inclusion of Green Bay on such a list.

But despite winning three Super Bowls in the 40-plus years that Super Bowls have existed, and a few NFL Championships in the pre-Super Bowl era, the Packers have had long droughts in which they have not challenged for a title or a playoff spot and therefore, while they are legendary, they are not dominant.

The real argument,  however, comes simply from their size. The city of Green Bay has a population near 100,000. The Metro Area, with 228,000 is by far the smallest market in the NFL.

The next smallest would be Jacksonville and Buffalo each with 1.1 million. Milwaukee is often counted as part of Green Bay’s market, but since games are no longer played in Milwaukee and that Milwaukee is a three-hour drive, we aren’t counting it.

Essentially, Green Bay is the last link to the early makeup of the NFL as a semi-pro league made up of industrial teams with corporate or occupational ties, such as the Decatur Staleys.

The fact that this franchise survived intact when all the other franchises in towns of similar demographics such as Muncie, Evansville, Canton, Dayton, Rock Island, Racine, Kenosha, Pottsville, and more either folded or moved to larger cities.

The fact that this one franchise survives, and with its original industrial name, and is competitive, at times bragging the best player in the game (Favre, most recently) is a David killing Goliath act in perpetuity.

And here is the similarity, the link, between these two towns. The Green Bay franchise survives despite all odds. The City of New Orleans survives despite all odds.

The City of Green Bay knows how to win because of a team that should never be. Perhaps the Saints and Bobcats will learn to win one day, because of a city that should never be.

The Buck Stops With Dick

Consider me twice bitten. I’m a Buffalo native now living in Chicago. I’ve suffered a double shot of Dick Jauron and I’m reeling.

It should be clear by now that Dick Jauron, as nice as he may be, as much as the players may like him, as intelligent as he may be, Yalie that he is, is not head coach material.

Like most Buffalo fans, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Unlike most Buffalo fans, I’d already suffered through his under-achievement in Chicago and I still gave him the benefit of the doubt.

There is only one reason I gave him this; Marv Levy.

Marv liked him. Marv hired him. I was willing to assume that Marv knew something I didn’t. Now I’m concluding that Marv was blinded by friendship.

Like the past three head coaches Buffalo has suffered through, Jauron is a notable coordinator. Like Wade Philips, Gregg Williams, and Mike Malarkey, he should have remained a coordinator. His future is as a coordinator.

In the meantime, the buck stops with Dick. What can be said of his coordinators and assistants? It flows from the head coach on down.

Bobby April is the one exception, the one bright spot on the Buffalo sidelines.  April has created and maintained the league’s best special teams.

Perhaps April should be the head coach. Special teams can win games, especially close ones, and more than a few Bills games in the Jauron era have been won by special teams.

On the other hand, more than a few have been closer than they should have been because of the coaching. More than a few have been lost because of the coaching. Conservatively, three games in ’08 could have easily been victories. The Bills would have been 10-6, in the playoffs and likely division champs.

One could argue that in 2007 the Bills lost at least three games due to coaching errors in close contests. Again, they could have been 10-6 and in the playoffs, despite a mid season injury to Trent Edwards.

Having the bi-city perspective on Dick Jauron, it is significant that the same things have been written and said about Jauron in Buffalo that were said about him in Chicago.

In both cities, he has taken talented teams into reverse. There has been a great deal of instability at key positions, especially quarterback under Jauron in Buffalo, just as in Chicago.

It’s as if he can’t make up his own mind who his starting quarterback should be and the indecision infects the quarterbacks themselves.   

Another popular complaint about Jauron is that he is dispassionate. Fans want to see him get excited about something. They want to see anger and elation. They want to see a pulse.

So the question is; is coaching a tragic flaw for the Bills in 2009?

The answer; more likely than not.

It is still possible that Jauron can find his groove and the team with him? If things go well with TO, then who knows?

Perhaps those who defend Jauron as being a victim of hauntingly similar circumstances in Chicago and Buffalo and having done well, according to his supporters, to achieve a 7-9 record the past two years given the cards he was dealt, will be proven right.

Perhaps if he’d been kept on in Chicago another year or two he would have had a break out year there. Perhaps this will be his break out year. We doubt it, but would enjoy being proven wrong.

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