When it Comes to Sports - I'm Blacked Out

Can someone explain to me why it seems almost every professional sports team has either changed their colors, added to their colors or adopted the dreaded alternate uniform, in BLACK!

It is a trend that quite frankly has irritated me for quite some time now. I know I shouldn't be that concerned with such trivial matters as the color scheme of a few pro sports teams, especially in light of all the financial and political chaos in this country, but I am. Sports are about tradition and tradition has always been about building something meaningful and
being proud of what you are and where you come from.

I did not reach my level of concern without first trying to understand and adapt to the current trend in pro sports apparel. I considered that black may be slimming and, that alone would be a legitimate reason to adopt the color. However this method of reasoning soon left my mind when I gazed upon Warren Sapp looking just as fat in Raider silver and black as he did in Buccaneer red and pewter. We'll discuss pewter later!

I know my disgust will not be enough to cause a sufficient ground swell of emotions to overturn this trend in sports fashion, and I recognize that there may be some who disagree with my viewpoint. So, let me bring some solid factual insight to this matter.

Let's start with the NFL.

Sometime after the 1990's the Philadelphia Eagles began to wear black. At first they began subtly adding it in the form of trim and then openly began wearing a black alternate jersey. The Eagles are a proud and historic franchise that dates back to 1933. Their team colors have always been green and white, sure they added a splash of silver in the 1970's, but it was
the disco era and it was understated and tastefully done. Clad in the traditional green and white they played in three consecutive NFL championship games from 1947-1949, winning twice, 1948 and 1949. The colors would lead them to another championship in 1960. Wearing black the Eagles reached the NFC Championship game five times in eight years (2001-2008), losing four times - the one time they were successful they lost the Super Bowl. They were arguably the better team and at home for several of those games - blame the black.

The Detroit Lions entered the NFL in the 1930's sporting the colors Honolulu blue and silver. Why you'd ever want to mess with Honolulu blue is a puzzle, but let's stick with facts and save the commentary for later. Sporting their traditional colors, the Lions won NFL Championships in 1935, 1952, 1953 and 1957. Now I know they've had a little dry spell that has lasted some fifty years now, but adding black has provided them with eight consecutive losing seasons. It's not the answer. Other examples would include the Baltimore Ravens, Super Bowl Champs in purple. In black, nothing but disappointment. Teams that are also kidding themselves would be the Carolina Panthers; stick with the Carolina blue please. The Atlanta Falcons, sure they made the Super Bowl when they switched to primarily black uniforms, but it resulted in defeat, to the Denver
Broncos, who were the worst Super Bowl performing team in history to that point - go back to red and stay true to yourselves boys. Jacksonville, go back to the blue, black will slow you down in the hot Florida sun - I'm just saying. The only teams that are approved to wear black in the NFL are the Oakland Raiders, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints. Bengal fans settle down, your team should be thrown out of the league for the tiger striped horror show
that appears every Sunday on television screens across America, trumped only by the "creamsicle" orange alternate uniforms adopted a few years ago.

Let's examine our national pastime, Major League Baseball for a moment.

Allowed to wear black are the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Tigers and the Pittsburgh Pirates - that's it. I acknowledge there is some gray area with the Baltimore Orioles, Florida Marlins, Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants, but what makes fashion sense in baseball is to be traditional and wear white at home and gray on the road. Some suggestions would be the following; Orioles, I'm fine with black as a third uniform for you, but truth be told in the 1970's when you first opted to have a third uniform you chose orange. Maybe you should be made to live with that decision. Marlins, black has been part of your original color scheme from the beginning, although you look more professional in the blue uniforms. Rockies just wear the purple and Giants you also took the path of the Orioles and chose orange in the 1970's.
Wearing black for no apparent reason, the Toronto Blue Jays, winners of back to back World Series in 1992 and 1993 wearing their traditional sky blue uniforms and in black, nothing but losing.

The Arizona Diamondbacks seemed to have come to their senses as an organization, after having dabbled with many looks over the years, including the dreaded black uniform; they seem to have settled on red as a primary color and it looks sharp. Kudos to the D-backs.

The New York Mets entered the National League in 1962 and pronounced themselves "the team" for all of the former Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants fans, who no longer had a team to call their own. They even made a big deal of announcing that they were adopting the colors blue (in honor of the Dodgers) and orange (in honor of the Giants). Wearing those colors they would win the World Series in 1969 and 1986. Then for whatever reason early in this decade, they adopted black into their color scheme. Perhaps they thought black would make them look tougher! In October of 2000 the Mets found themselves in the World Series again this time against their cross-town rival Yankees, the team probably most responsible for hastening the demise of the Dodgers and Giants in New York during the 1950's. The Mets lost, of course, black in the uniforms to blame and the looking tougher, well that theory went out the window when Roger Clemens fired a piece of Mike Piazza's broken bat at him and Piazza and the Mets did absolutely nothing about it! Perhaps yellow may have been a more appropriate color choice.

The NBA is absolutely ridiculous and I am reluctant to test my blood pressure any more than necessary, so lets leave it at this, the San Antonio Spurs are the only team that should be wearing black in the NBA, period!

The Celtics, Knicks, 76ers and Bulls should know better than to mess with success. The Kings are probably just trying to toughen up after being called the "Queens" for years by Shaquille O'Neal. We know now that doesn't work - see Piazza and the Mets. The Miami Heat should stick to red, the Orlando Magic, blue and the Utah Jazz, purple. The Portland Trail Blazers switched to black from red and now lead the league in arrests - your team colors are red; note your 1977 NBA championship team.

Hockey sadly has many of the same issues.

The Philadelphia Flyers with one of the most distinct uniforms in the league, orange trimmed in black and white, won Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975. In this decade they have bowed to the trend and adopted a black uniform. The Flyers of the 1970's certainly didn't bow to trends, in fact they fostered a reputation of going against trends in the NHL and this new
generation of Flyers should adopt the same stance.

The Chicago Blackhawks have traditionally sported, what I believe to be the nicest uniform in hockey. They get a pass here though, as originally they wore predominantly more black than red and won Stanley Cups clad in both red and black uniforms. A pass also goes to the Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning, though I like them better in red and blue respectively.

The Flames should never have deviated from the red and yellow that brought them a Stanley Cup in 1989. The Washington Capitals are looking better these days in their new federal blue uniforms - nice job. The Dallas Stars, cup winners in 1999 wearing green, have done nothing wearing black. The Anaheim Ducks or Mighty Ducks - forget it, they should be thrown out of
the league for ever having been known as the Mighty Ducks.

Approved to wear black in the NHL, the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Of course with everything there is an exception to the rule and the Penguins are it. They originally entered the NHL in 1967 wearing powder blue and black. In 1979 they legitimately adopted the colors black and gold to keep themselves in line with the city's other two sports residents, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Steelers had won four Super Bowl Titles at that point and the Pirates had just won their fifth World Series. The Penguins had suffered through seven losing seasons in their first decade. Since the switch to black and gold they have won three Stanley Cups.

Checking the "tale of the tape", teams stated, wearing traditional uniforms have won 15-championships, when switching to black uniforms nothing! The Penguins are excluded, remember I legitimized them. So facts are facts and numbers don't lie. If you want to be successful in professional sports keep your teams operating in the "black" and playing in their
traditional colors.

By the way, any of you who read this and said to yourselves, "the Chicago Bears and New York Yankees wear black and he forgot to mention them." They wear blue - and that's a topic for another day!

Watch these teams and all your favorites in crystal clear High-Definition on Dish Network.

Is Brett Favre Ruining His Legacy?

When Future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre first retired in 2007 after 16 years of playing for the Green Bay Packers many thought he was doing the right thing. He was 37 years old and over his career he did more for his team and the Green Bay organization then most players could ever dream of. He was a player who had always seem to put his team first, despite his many individual achievements.

During his career with Green Bay, Favre helped lead the Packers to 7-Division Titles, 2-NFC Championships and won a Super Bowl. He also won the Most Valuable Player Award three consecutive seasons. Statistically, Favre has set so many milestones that most quarterbacks coming into the league will be doing well to accomplish half of his success. Favre has thrown 464 career touchdown passes, passed for 65,127 yards, completed 5,720 passes, has 9,280 career pass attempts, made 291 consecutive starts, and lead his team to 169 victories all NFL records by a quarterback. .

Favre always seemed to be a kid in the candy store while on the football field. He would turn negative plays in positive ones all the time. He made so many game winning comebacks that little kids watching at home knew their dreams of leading their favorite team to a Super Bowl victory with 20 seconds left could happen with hard work and determination. He gave so many people hope whether through football or one of his various charities. .

When he retired for the first time is was the end of another great legacy. Toward the end of his stint in Green Bay he realized he was no longer the franchise player, when the Packers selected Aaron Rodgers with the 24th pick in the 1st round of the 2005 NFL Draft. Knowing his time there seemed limited, Favre remained himself even with the fact that at anytime he could be pulled out for Rodgers to take over. Through it all he kept his head up and finished out two more seasons before announcing his retirement. .

At the end of the 2007 season in front of the media and his Green Bay teammates Favre bid his farewell to the game that he loved and cherished. From his emotional good bye it seemed that he was all done, and many fans looked forward to seeing him in the booth as a broadcaster for Sunday or Monday Night football games. However with his never ending give it all or nothing attitude he decided that maybe he still had some gas in the tank and took up the NY Jets offer to come out of retirement and take over as the starting quarterback. When he arrived at Jets camp it was reminiscent of the good old days when Broadway Joe Namath ran the Jets offense, except the Favre led Jets did not do so well, missing the playoffs and finishing the season 9-7. After a grueling season in which he injured his shoulder, Favre announced his "official" retirement for the second time in two years. And though it was sad to see him go it was time, the game seemed to be moving at a faster pace then he could. .

After months of denying speculation that he might be coming back again, he did the unimaginable right as the 2009 season was about to start announcing that he would once again come out of retirement to take over as the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. Now it seemed like Favre was no longer looking out for the best interest in his team but himself. He was an aging quarterback with a torn up shoulder that did not know when to just shut it down. It seems Favre became victim to the same thing that many others like him have "The Limelight". Its hard enough being the average Joe walking away from sports, as you get older. Now imagine being the face of an NFL franchise constantly in the media always being asked to do commercials and making public appearances. To doing nothing but just sitting at home fishing and maybe doing a couple of appearances here and there, must not have seemed to be fulfilling enough. .

For most of us to be able to retire at the age of 39 with more money than you could imagine would be fantastic, but for a superstar it's not so easy. While there have only been a few legendary players who have walked away in their prime like the Cleveland Browns great Jim Brown, and Barry Sanders of the Detroit Lions. Most professional players just don't know when to say enough even though there is nothing left for them to prove. For instance Jerry Rice probably the best wide receiver to ever play the game played well beyond his prime trying to prove he could still do it. Even in other sports players have a hard time leaving the limelight like Michael Jordan the greatest to ever play on an NBA court. .

While we as fans say they should just know when to give it up. It is we that make true legends want to give it their all no matter how old or what condition their body is in. It seems that when they retire they feel they are letting us fans down, recognizing we have supported them through the ups and downs in their careers. So while we can sit here and try to justify why Favre should stay retired, you have to think about all the game winning plays he has made how much he has contributed to the sport, and not solely focus on the Viking 2-year $25-million dollar contract, after all, who would say no to that. .

The only question that remains is will Favre's decision to keep playing taint his status as one of the all time greats. There will always be a debate as to who the greatest quarterback of all time is. The generation you grew up in usually dictates your belief. Despite the fact that present day NFL quarterbacks seem to be breaking all the old records. My grandfather still insists to this day that Johnny Unitas, and Bart Starr are the two greatest to ever play the game. My father's choices are Joe Namath, Warren Moon and Dan Marino. I would have to say my top quarterbacks of all time would have to be Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, and Favre. But my favorite quarterback is Donovan McNabb and that's because I'm an Eagles fan.

You can still see Manning and McNabb performing their magic on Sunday's, but to see the other greats of the game, see them immortalized on NFL Network and catch in crystal clear high-definition on an Dish Network.

NFL Red Zone and NFL Sunday Ticket – A Comparison

I am proud to call myself a sports fan. I like to watch my favorite teams play each week in their respective sports, and especially come playoff time. But I do however have one concern. It seems over the past few years more and more sports packages have become available like NFL Sunday Ticket, MLB Extra Innings, Etc.

Don’t get me wrong the idea of having the ability to choose to watch all 16 NFL football games being played each week is great. But, is it worth the $300.00 you pay? Lets face it, these Sports packages are perfect for a Sports Bar who has more then 4 televisions where they can get their money’s worth by watching most of the games being played. For those of us who do not own a Sports Bar, and live in an average house with at the most 3 televisions in separate rooms, we can only watch 3 of the games being played at one time. So let’s break that down 3 games at a time, so 6 well 7 with Monday night out of 16 games a week for the bargain price of $300.00.

The $300.00 does not include your regular programming package price, so it is additional to your normal bill. Now with out the sports package you would still be able to see the 7 games being played without paying the extra money. Of course your particular team may not be one of the televised games, but you also did not pay an extra $300.00. Not to mention that out of the goodness of it’s heart DIRECTV will automatically add the NFL Sunday ticket the following year of course at the new years pricing (which is always higher the next year). So when you receive that bill that automatically shows the NFL Sunday Ticket price you have to call in to let them know you do not want it this year, now it is prorated because the season has started so there will be some sort of charge.

Now let’s see, if I got the Sunday Ticket am I a bigger sports fan? NO! Dish Network may not offer the NFL Sunday Ticket, but they do offer the NFL RED ZONE. This is a channel, which is part of their multi sports package at a cost of $5.99 per month. NFL RED ZONE shows you all of the Touchdowns scored as they happen for each team each week. So let’s see, I can see every touchdown scored plus watch the normal televised games, for $5.99 a month. That works out to be what $71.88 per year, and a $228.12 dollar savings. Hmm, I may not be the smartest man but that sounds like one hell of a bargain compared to the Sunday Ticket, and who can use the extra $228.12 in their pocket. Think about it this way, that is just about the price of a ticket to the actual game.

Think about it, we as sports fans are being prayed upon by our cable providers. They know our dedication to our teams and the sports that they play. They use this to make so much money off of us each year that we cannot go to the games. Which in turn adds to the blackout of local sporting events. It is a vicious circle that is not going to end until we standup and stop needlessly spending money on these sports packages just to say we have them, when their value is not really justified unless you own a Sports Bar.

Quite honestly, Dish Network has the most reasonable option right now. NFL Red Zone shows you all the touchdowns as they happen, and saves you $228.12 a year. Count me in that is until one of these providers smartens up and gives us the option of following a specific team throughout the season. One team every game they play all season including their playoff run and championship games.

That I would pay for, tell me for $100.00 a season I can see every game the Yankees play including playoffs and World Series I am in. Tell me I can follow the Dallas Cowboys all season every game again I am in. Lets even get crazy and extend it to college teams. All home and away games for one team at a set price in any sport I choose, hands down I would sign up.

Not going to sign up for 16 games most of which I don’t care about for $300.00 a season you are kidding yourself DIRECTV nobody has the extra money to throwaway on what you think is worth it.

Until someone offers the opportunity to follow only your favorite team through their season, playoff run, and championship game, or games. I will switch to Dish Network, save over two hundred dollars a year, and still see every touchdown as it happens with the NFL Red Zone. The whole time I can still watch all the normally broadcast games.