Felt the Lightning, and Waited On The Thunder...

Reports were out as early as Sunday that the former Seattle Supersonics had chosen their new moniker - say hello to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Honestly, I don't think it's all that bad a name (this guy does, but anyone from Seattle will have a problem no matter what the name is), though my gut reaction was if they were going the extreme weather route, one would think that Cyclones would be a) more indicative of the region's climate, and b) more in keeping with the alliterative history of the franchise... whatever, anything's better than the Outlaws. Every time I heard that suggestion, I was horrified at the thought of what that logo might've looked like.

But if the consensus is that the name is finalized, why hasn't an official announcement made? It could be because T-shirts bearing the generic OKC NBA logo went on sale this week. That's right, the plain black jerseys the team debuted at a Summer League game in Orlando on July 7th, days after the team reached a settlement with the City of Seattle. The shirts are flying off the shelves - that report says it's because the shirts are a "collectors item," but I think it's more than that (more on that in a minute). The point is - why would you reveal the official name, logo and colors right now? You've got plenty of time to sell those jerseys and hats. People will only buy the generic t-shirts until they see the real logo. Clay Bennett and friends are showing once again that they know a thing or two about running a business. Whether you like him or not, Bennett proved in Seattle that he can talk the talk, and now there's no denying that these guys can walk the walk as well.

So that is why, to borrow from Bob Seger, we're waiting on the Thunder. Expect to see these shirts at OKC games for years to come - fans will wear them proudly as a symbol of being with the team since the very beginning. These, and the NO/OKC Hornets jerseys, and even old Sonics jerseys - every chapter of the city's NBA history will make its way into the seats of the Ford Center, regardless who the League and the courts think owns the franchise's history. I look over at my Beat LA t-shirt - I know I'm gonna be wearing that to Celtics events until it has wholes in it because of what it represents to me and to other fans. So sure, it's a business move for Bennett and friends - that $75 million for the City of Seattle has to come from somewhere - but I like the move from a fan standpoint as well. People of Oklahoma - go pick up one of those generic shirts while you can. In a couple of years, it'll be the ultimate throwback.

Super Bowl Sunday and Toboggans

Tonight is the Big Game! (Thank goodness that phrase isn't trademarked) The Pats are on the verge of completing the perfect season. There's more than enough words on the internet written about the Super Bowl because everyone in sports feels its their duty to write about it. So I'll be quick with my predictions - Giants score first, Pats dominate but never pull away, and somebody not named Eli makes a bonehead mistake in the third quarter that makes Giants fans scream obscenities but follow it up with "that's okay, but there's still time left." (My guess is it'll be Amani Toomer - I want it to be Plexiglass Burress, but he's won a Super Bowl before and I'm not expecting mistakes out of him... of course, it could still be Eli. It could always be Eli. Hide your heart, girls.) The Pats will win but won't cover - and that's the stance I took in the bet with my Jersey roommate - he wins if the Giants win OR if the Pats blow them out... I need the Pats to win by 12 or less. I still think I got the best window.

My favorite soccer blog site threw up a post today with XI Reasons Football (with the feet) is Better Than Football (with the hands). A couple good zingers in there, but I love both sports. I love the strategy and specialized athleticism of gridiron football, and I love the action, the style, and the spirit of soccer. I don't expect the world's soccer fans to embrace the NFL - despite the shared name, the two games are fundamentally different from a spectator level. An NFL game is an event - a 3 hour chunk of your day, and often a lot longer if you include the pregame show and tailgating. And there isn't a whole lot of action - theres a lot of downtime which leads to more conversation, either about the game or just general discussion. A lot like going to a baseball game - and that's why the pigskin is the new American Pastime. Soccer, meanwhile, is non-stop action (the untrained American eye will say that nothing's going on, but nobody will deny that the clock is always running). In this way, soccer flows more like a basketball game, and that (as well as the smartest global marketing team in sports) is why the NBA is catching on overseas. The NHL could translate, too, but it needs to focus on keeping an audience here before grabbing fans in London.

But naturally, TheOffside's post lead to a debate in the comments over the word "soccer." Sammy wrote:

I think the term “soccer” should be eliminated from this website. When I think of “soccer” I think of kids doing laps around a park district and eating oranges. When I think of “football” I think of the beautiful game. We won’t offend any American Football fans here.

I want to share a little anecdote about this - I'm from Massachusetts, and the first winter that I was down here in North Carolina, as soon as it started getting cold one of my Southern friends started looking for his "toboggan". I said, "What on earth do you need a toboggan for? There's no snow on the ground, so we can't very well go sledding." He didn't know what on earth I was talking about, so as usual we let Wikipedia settle our dispute.

Up north, "toboggan" means a sled. In "Southern American English," it apparently means what I would call a ski cap (or, if I was making a joke about Canada or talking about hockey, what I would call a tuque). My gut reaction was that he must be wrong - that the South must be wrong! How can they take a word that doesn't belong to them and apply it to the wrong thing? Surely North Carolinians shouldn't get to decide names for wintery things! But when you settle down, you realize that it's just another part of southern culture that's different from the culture I come from - just like calling a rotary a "traffic circle," listening to country music or deep frying an Oreo.

And this toboggan incident led me to be a lot more neutral in the "football v. soccer" debate. What's in a name? Often the Americans who demand that we call the beautiful game "football" are the Eurosnob fans who don't give the MLS a chance in the first place. For starters, here's a quick history lesson on the term "soccer." We're not the only society who uses the word this way - and even if we were, would that be so wrong? Once you get to the World Cup, most of the time, the players aren't speaking the same language anyway! I think the community of American soccer fans would do well to drop this debate and accept the fact that, over here, we call it soccer. That's just our culture. It's no less right than football.

One last Super Bowl point - the media has been so focused on revamping the SpyGate investigation that nobody has highlighted the biggest surprise of the AFC Championship - Belichick didn't keep trying to score in the fourth quarter! Why stop now? What happened to playing 60 minutes of football? The only mention I saw of this was one little paragraph in Tuesday Morning Quarterback the week after the game, and Easterbrook left it at a "What's up with that?" (Probably because he hasn't acknowledged the Pat's relentless 4th quarter effort as a source of their wins in close games this year.)

The End of an Era

I mentioned the possibility two days ago, but now it's true - Pat Noonan has left the Revs for greener pastures in Norway. The Rev's didn't pick up the option on his contract, hoping they could start talks lower than the $225,000 salary he earned last year, but instead lost him to Norwegian Premier League side Aaeslund Fotballklubb (or AaFK for the abbrv'sters). I would find it hard to find a reason not to go to sunny Åeslund, which sits about 4º South of the Arctic Circle. But though Åeslund may not have much sunlight in the winter, they apparently get NESN - after the 2004 MLS season, which saw Matt Reis earn the starting job in New England, the former Revs goalkeeper Adin Brown joined AaFK.

From the Revs perspective, it's always disappointing to see one of your starters going, especially when it leaves us with only two forwards with game experience on the roster. And he and Twellman were buddies, so Noonan's departure won't help keep Twellman here... but if I'm being completely honest, I'm not too upset to that Noonan's leaving.

I always found Noonan remarkably frustrating to watch. He scored goals, yes, but he had a terrible tendency to miss wide open opportunities. My frustration always prompted me and my brother to yell "NOONAN" in the middle of Revs games... you remember Newman from Seinfeld? I'm not saying that Noonan is the embodiment of all that is evil, but it was that sort of a yell. Alas, love him or hate him, it's the end of an era. He played for the Revs for 5 years... runner-up Rookie of the Year... and just as Superman had his Lex Luthor and Jerry Seinfeld had Newman, I'm sad to see Twellman and Noonan splitting up.

MLS.com had an interesting piece on all the changes the Revs are making this offseason... and I thought it seemed like a lot, but this fleshes it out a bit more clearly. Again, it's out of necessity, and we knew this was coming - last year was always going to be the last chance that group had to win something, as it became clear early on that Twellman/Ralston/Parkhurst/Joseph were going to keep getting interest from abroad. And to their credit, they did win something - the much-maligned but much-loved-in-my-book Lamar Hunt US Open Cup - but the MLS Cup once again eluded them. Reading this article, though, I realized that a lot of these moves - the draft picks, Albright - could fill in the missing pieces better than I had anticipated. Maybe last year wasn't the last chance after all.

Best of luck to Noonan and his fellow ex-Rev and expatriate (ex-Patriot?) Adin Brown. I'm glad I now have a team to follow in the NPL, or Tippeligaen in Norwegian (which is impossible to read). Last year, AaFK just barely escaped relegation, finishing 11th out of 14. But at least the skiing's good? Maybe Aqua will come through town on their reunion tour?

Oh, and PS - This doesn't scare me. Patriots opinions coming.

Allow myself to introduce... myself.

So Pete Smith told me to start a blog, so I did. The *edit: first* name for the blog was "One More Post..." which comes from D2: The Mighty Ducks when Gordon Bombay and Wolf "The Dentist" Stansson are going one on one for ice time/bragging rights before the championship game and after Stansson crushed Bombay's beach ball with his bare hands. The full line is "One more post and you go home crying... by the way, Stansson, you owe me a beach ball." I thought it sounded blog-y.

While I'm at it, the title for this post is from Austin Powers.

EDIT 1/25: Well, since I'm four posts in and they've been not at all about hockey, I changed my mind on the title. It's only four posts in, so I can do that. I decided to rename it "Mystery Minutes." That's what my sister always calls the end of a soccer game - you know, what the rest of us call "stoppage time." There's no visible clock for it at a game, making it pretty much a mystery if you missed the announcement. I also think the title fits because my posts have wound up being way longer than planned and I waste too much time writing them. I should work on that.