I was listening to the interview of Buffalo Bills Owner Ralph Wilson Jr who will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame later this year. And something he said after being nominated struck me. He criticized other owners, that in his opinion, ‘took the easy way out’ and abandoned their cities for greener pastures. And Wilson’s right. What ever happened to loyalty? The truth is, loyalty in sports went out the door in 1984. In 1984 sports, and pro football in particular,  became all about the money.

Wilson said there were many times when he had considered moving his team but when it came time to pull the trigger, despite being tempted by more money and greater profits, it always came back to doing what was right for the city and doing what was right for the people of Buffalo. He said that he had gotten in to sports ownership for the thrill of competition, not for more money. As he put it, and I paraphrase, “if you’re an owner of a pro team, you’re doing ok financially.”

He needs to be applauded for staying loyal to the people and city of Buffalo. Oh if there were only more professional sports owners with this mindset today!

Unfortunately, Mr. Wilson is an increasingly rare breed of owner. Even as he grows older and talks about the future of the Bills after he passes, he admits that they will likely be sold to the highest bidder. It would be great if former Bills great Jim Kelly, could swoop in and save the Bills, but it already appears the league is shopping them around, even scheduling Bills games in Canada to ‘expand the fan base.’ Whatever.

It’s a sad situation, especially if you know any Bills fans. They are some of the best, most loyal, most knowledgeable fans around. It would be a shame to give them the shaft.

But as I said above, there was a pivot point, a time when this type of thing became acceptable. Sports stopped being about hometown pride and loyalty and started to be about cash. Sports were always about hometown spirit and building legend. But a fateful night in 1984 changed it all. Other teams had changed cities before. But it had mostly happened when a league failed, realigned, or disolved. When the storied Baltimore Colts franchise, under the ownership of Robert Irsay, snuck out of Baltimore under cover of night, pro football officially changed. It no longer was about hometown spirit or pride, or loyalty, it became all about expediancy and the money.

Irsay set a precedent. Is your team having a down year? Not filling the stadium? Simply want a shiny new stadium? There’s an easy, quick answer- move the team.  Unfortunately now that’s the mindset of most owners. Now each year loyal fans are subjected to the rumors about the professional teams likely to relocate.

So for the Bills fans out there, I am rooting for you. I truly hope that Jim Kelly comes through or that another Ralph Wilson type buys the team. But in the meantime, steel yourself. Prepare for the fact that football is no longer about city pride or loyalty. Enjoy the games, support your team at every opportunity. Enjoy the great product on the field and the amazing athletic feats that are performed. But don’t get too attached to the players or even the colors on the jerseys. Harden your sensibilities and embrace the fact that football is all about business these days, not the name of the city on the jersey or the hearts of the fans that fill the stadiums. But don’t be too sad, it’s been that way since 1984.

With the biggest sports game in the world set for later this week, an unexpected contest has been stealing all the headlines recently. And the game wasn’t even close. In fact it was a blowout.

Once again, ethics and sports have become front and center with news of a girls high school basketball game where the score got out of hand. In Texas, Covenant School defeated Dallas Academy 100-0.  That’s not a misprint!

Following the game, the winning school offered an apology saying, “a victory without honor is a loss.” In the subsequent days, Covenant’s coach refused to apologize for the win or his players performance and was later fired by the school.

But this blowout, isn’t anything new. It just highlights the age old question - what is the goal of amateur sports? Are athletics all about winning or is there much more to it?  Without getting too much into it, I’ll simply stick with the latter.

Speaking of lopsided scores, this also brings me to an interesting fact for stat buffs. What was the largest margin of victory in college football history?

The answer - In 1916, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222- 0. The only picture of game action is posted above.

So what do both losing teams have in common aside from their lopsided losses? Now both Dallas Academy and Cumberland wear their losses as a badge of honor.

The scoreboard from the infamous 222-0 game.

In September, a birthday passed with little acclaim: the most monumental invention in football, the forward pass. 

It seems strange now to think that football didn’t always have the pass.  But nothing exists in a vacuum.  Football evolved from Rugby, where the forward pass is illegal, so in the start, it was only natural to not allow passing.

To trace the pass, you have to go back over a hundred years ago.  There is no “real” professional football.  Passing has only been used illegally, accidentally, and/or experimentally.  The game is popular in high schools and colleges and it is extraordinarily violent.  Violent as in people were dying violent.  There was some movement to try and ban the sport. Read the full story

Continuing our look into the stories behind the names of the NFL playoff teams, we now move on to the NFC.

The New York Giants
Technically the New York Football Giants, this team is one of the oldest in the league.  They joined the league in 1925 and have been forever in the ownership of the Mara family.  Before 1956 the team played in New York’s famed Polo Grounds which at the time housed the New York Giants of baseball, before they moved to San Francisco.  I haven’t been able to find it absolutely confirmed anywhere, but in the era (see Pittsburgh Steelers) football teams who were tenets of baseball teams often took the same name as their hosts.

One Sunday in December by Lou Sahadi gives a nice breif history of the club. Read the full story

We did this over here earlier for the baseball playoffs and it was a lot of fun.  So as the NFL playoffs begin, let’s look again at where the names of the competitors come from.  Starting with the AFC:

The Tennessee Titans
The Titans have some of the most fun name history out of the whole bunch.  The Titans used to be the Tennessee Oilers, and the Tennessee Oilers used to be the former AFL team the Houston Oilers (which makes a lot more sense).  So the team changed its name in 1999 and became the Titans, therefore picking up a bit of legacy from the former (and also former AFL team) New York Titans, who became the New York Jets.  So in one team’s name, you can draw associations to three other teams!  There isn’t much of a story behind the Titans name, it was changed to coincide with the team getting a new stadium, (the Oilers name only was around for two years) and it was supposed to be less geographically specific as the Oilers and reflect powerful, intimidating qualities. Read the full story