Goodbye RedWoods, hello Mountain Lions
It really amazes me how the folks that run the United Football League can develop a good strategy to grow their league, and then muck up the details. How can they continue to get stuff so wrong? The renamed the relocated New York Sentinels the Hartford Colonials even though the name Colonials did not appear on their name your team contest. Ditto that for the newly named Sacramento Mountain Lions. The California Redwoods relocated to the State Capital and will be now known as the Mountain Lions.
Beyond that fact that big cat sports team nicknames are about as played out as the Atari 2600, and I come from a town where Tigers, Lions, and Panthers have all been nicknames of major sports teams, Mountain Lions did not appear on the UFL’s name your team contest for this team either.
The UFL will sell us on the fact that Mountain Lions was the number one write in vote for the contest, but given this leagues difficulty with the truth, I don’t know if we should believe them or not. It seems kind of strange that both renamed teams did not end up with a nick name from the contest finalists. Maybe I am just cynic, or maybe we are being lied to.
Regardless of all that I am on the fence about this name. Mountain Lions are a big concern in California, but it is yet another name that invites comparisons to NFL teams. Since announcing this name earlier today I have already heard and read many jokes comparing them to the NFL’s Detroit Lions. This league needs to strive for a day when they talk about the league just because, not in comparisons to the NFL.
Related Links:
