Some revisions of the T-Shirt

Here are a few revisions of the shirt, based on critiques I received at Stampede Blue:

T-Shirt Idea, any takers?

I have just completed my first T-shirt design. I decided to stick to a theme we could all love, Bob Sanders. Let me know what you think. I'll get Cafe Press on making some if anyone is interested. Just shoot me an email.

Next up: Chargers in the Dome(Divisional Round Playoffs)

Well, here they come. Remember those guys in the powder blue uniforms who made fools of Russ Purnell (this is not a hard task, light does the same thing every moment - without even trying), frustrated the Fearless Leader with 6 opportunistic interceptions, and still only won because the Placekicker Gods didn't receive their pre-game sacrifice from Adam Vinatieri? Those guys, who used to have a coat of arms with a horse head on it as a logo, are known as the Chargers by the league. My theory suggests that will soon be known as "The First Team to Get Rocked by the Colts on the Way to Their Second Championship", or some appropriately shortened acronym.

This team continues to baffle the mind. One could say they have the most talented (in a raw sense) roster in the league, but don't seem to have the consistency and fortitude to win the Big Game. If one looks at their near-squeaker against Tennessee and point to that as a sign of improvement, you haven't watched one game of Titans-era Vince Young. LT showed once again that speed on the edge of the defense can quickly nullify his talents (as great as they are), and the San Diego secondary is an on again/off again type unit. But surely the biggest crack to develop in this team recently is the injury to Antonio Gates. Gates is so talented and explosive a player, the media doesn't have the attention span to pay attention to the remarkable Dallas Clark. And lastly comes the San Diego pass rush, which features four should-be-household names in Merriman, Phillips, Castillo, and Williams. With the exception of the latter, all four base their attack off speed, which the Colts' line showed this season it can handle.

The one X factor in this game will no doubt be experience. The Colts know how to win playoff games. Three rookies will need to adjust: Ed Johnson, Anthony Gonzalez, and Tony Ugoh. An emphasis on the last name there, he better be ready for every ounce of effort you can expect and then some, especially if New England smacks down the Kitties from J-Town. They want revenge from the playoffs and the earlier regular season game, so they might go for blood. I would say that I am definitely confident going into this game, as I know that they'll need more than 17 points to beat Peyton and the Gang.

A more in-depth analysis is in the wings, and I'll post it about mid-week. I'll also try to post any significant scuttlebut coming out of 56th Street. In the meantime, click on your Notepad and get the keyboards fired up, we'll be ramping up for mock-draft and off-season speculation mode early, to keep things fresh around here until serious action gets going.

Thanks again for reading and please feel free to comment.

Just a thought...

Have you ever said to yourself. "Self, was Kordell Stewart really in-bounds on that last second Hail Mary pass from Jim Harbaugh in the '95 AFC Championship, or is it just fuzzy memory from your younger-hood?" And upon saying some similar thing, wonder why the NFL doesn't have these games available to the general public for viewing or purchase? I do often.

Nowadays, people have DVRs, DVD recorders, Limewire, BitTorrent and a variety of other tools that allow them to save and share video of their favorite games, and archive them for posterity. This was not so much the case pre-2001, before TiVo hit the streets with a fury, and people found a way to export the video to their computer for long-term storage. I watch maybe one season of Captain Comeback(the Indy Version), and wish I could have seen the rest. And maybe Eric Dickerson in a Colts uniform, or Marshall Faulk coming out in the ridiculous White-Shirt, Blue-Pant uniform, or Edgerrin James' first game, Peyton's first snap from center, of the first D Pass from "18 to 88". The entire '95 playoffs were incredible fun, and I loathe that the most I can hope for is some highlight on some Colts history video.

I don't think I'm the only one, nor do I think Colts fans are alone here. Other teams have great moments from the past(some back from the days where the goalpost was in front of the end zone). Are these moments truly lost? NFL Films says no, but they'd rather hoard them to only be released on their dramatically scored and narrated "Classics". What about me, and those like me, who want to watch the original broadcast, sans outdated commercials, and see all the action? Who want to decide what games are classic to them?

I'm sure the NFL would counter by saying that the costs of digitzation of these games would be too high. Give me a break, if I can digitize a VCR tapes for an inital investment of less than $100 on my $500 computer in under an hour, I think NFL Films, with all their technology and talent, could pull this together in about a year's team, maybe releasing another season every few days or week. And guess what NFL, no need to worry about putting together some new-fangled way of getting these games to the fans, most of them already use one of the best, most proven ways to get digital media consumed on an ala carte basis, iTunes.

Sign on the dotted line, Roger Goodell, and watch the revenues come pouring in. This is a market that is so untapped that I think it is insane. Other sports would probably follow suit, though they might not offer every nearly-irrelevant game in their excessive schedules. But the NFL schedule lends itself so well to this, 265 games a year, plus 11 games. There are over 200 million fans of NFL Football out there, you don't think you couldn't get an average of one game sold to every one of them? At the going price for feature-length video out there, that might fetch a decent $500 million dollar revenue plus. Pay iTunes their $1 or whatnot and you have a respectable entry into the new media world. Do the same with the NFL Films Classics like "America's Game".

If people will fork over money to watch low-rating crap that they can see re-runs of all year long, and 5 years and 10 years later on the higher-number channels, and constantly hand over wads of it to buy more commercialized, droningly similar music, why would they not spend it to watch their favorite sports moments?

The absence of this from the NFL's agenda tells me that they have people who are afraid to look beyond the status quo to find new revenues for their member teams. Treat the net revenue as broadcast revenue, and give it to the teams and adjust the cap accordingly. Or, count it as a "local revenue" and split the revenue between the two teams in each download. An average of $12 million might sound like a drop in the bucket to teams in large markets like the Redskins and Patriots, but it would help small market teams a lot.

Speed Blue Nation is (re)Born!

To anyone and everyone who read the blog over at MyColts.net, I apologize for the sudden dearth in production once the regular season began. Personal circumstances did not allow me to devote much time to the blog, but now I will have ample time resume my duties as the Chief of Staff of the Speed Blue Nation. I'll be working diligently at first to put together an appropriate look for the blog, and at the same time add some content appropriate to this lull in Colts action.

I would like to first give readers an update on the Marvin Harrison Report, which coincidentally has nothing to do with overzealous senators, cheap shot ex-players, or doping superstars. It was reported by the World Leader in Sports Bias that Marvin Harrison did indeed practice today, as I had imagined after listening to the Bill Polian Show last night. This means that we could see the Indy offense break out and score 21 points before the Titans could realize that we are in fact not Uranus, but instead Zeus and the Olympians(I particularly enjoy the thought of Peyton throwing actual lightning bolts). I will update the MHR as more information comes out, especially an announcement that Marvin will indeed play.

Please feel free to send any suggestions or story ideas to me at my email address.