The UFL will be home to the Trains and the Trees\

With the league making its television debut 59 days from now, the United Football League figured that it might be about time to release some team names and some uniforms. The first two in the books are the Las Vegas Locomotives and the California Redwoods. Those are the teams you see pictured above, with the Redwoods on the left and the Choo Choo Trains on the right.

It just so happens that these two behemoths will do battle in the UFL's inaugural game on October 10 on Versus.

The uniforms appear to be exactly the same in the design and pattern, with only the fruity colors differing. It doesn't look like the UFL plans on getting all that creative with logos, either.

I'll be honest with you: I'm a little disappointed in Vegas' name. I was hoping for something cheesier and more Vegas-y, like the Las Vegas Gamblers, High Rollers, Pit Bosses, Snake Eyes, or Doublers Down. But no, we get trains. Here's the explanation from the UFL's Roger Goodell, Michael Huyghue:

"Las Vegas was originally established in 1905 with the opening of the Salt Lake, San Pedro and Los Angeles Railroads. We wanted to honor the vast history of the city and the intrinsic benefits that this innovation provided to the community."

Well, hooray for railroad history. There's a topic that captivates America's youth.

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http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/sh...me-to-the-Trains-and-the-Trees?urn=nfl,182341

If this comes on a channel I'm getting, I'm pretty sure I'll probably watch a game, or at least DVR it and watch later. Since there's no Houston team, I doubt I'll be watching this much other than just out of curiosity.

The games air on VS and HDnet.

I get HDnet, so I guess I'll have to catch a game if I don't forget.

The 'Redwoods'? Soo, they're going to have a huge tree on their helmet?

That's a lot of wood to fit on one man's helmet.

Cheesy, PC names = lame.

Vegas should have been, without a doubt the Gamblers. California on the other hand... well, I've never been a fan of teams being named for states. It just doesn't work for me. Even worse for me is naming it for a region like Carolina for example. It's not even named for a single state. It's both of them. Oddly enough I feel like this works though in one place. New England. I mean, it's not better than "Boston Patriots" but as small as those states are up there I can see how "New England" just kind of fits.

Carolina and Tennessee are just attempts to appeal to wider areas. How can you live in Memphis and really think that the Titans represent you in any real way? They're the Nashville Titans just like the Panthers are really the Charlotte Panthers and the Vikings are the Minneapolis Vikings.

I guess that makes the California Redwoods really the San Francisco Redwoods. Regardless it's a lousy name and I do not expect this league to last more than a year or two. The idea of a minor league for the NFL is not bad, it's just being done poorly here. They should go with a developmental league that plays a 6-8 game schedule in the fall with each team aligned with a nearby NFL franchise. They should follow the MLB approach to some extent. I'd like to see a 32 team developmental league start up using (whenever possible) names of former and now defunct NFL teams of the past and with teams only located in cities that have no NFL football. An example might be the Cleveland Browns associated with a "NDFL" team in say, Canton Ohio called the Canton Bulldogs. In areas without historical teams to resurrect they would be starting from scratch but they could pull unused vintage names out and assign them.

It could be done right and it would be very helpful. The developmental team would be where NFL teams store prospects for a year or two and where they get replacement players in season when injuries hit. They could go with a limit on elegibility to keep them entirely focused on young players. There would be no career minor league players here.

The other two teams are the Orlando Tuskers and the New York Sentinels, FWIW. And yes, the uniforms look exactly the same with some cosmetic color changes.

A little off-topic here, but this reminded of the USFL and more specifically the Gamblers. I know there are some others out there that loved Gamblers too. Check out this website if you haven't already seen it:
Houston-Gamblers

Texan_Bill said:

A little off-topic here, but this reminded of the USFL and more specifically the Gamblers. I know there are some others out there that loved Gamblers too. Check out this website if you haven't already seen it:
Houston-Gamblers

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Damn, Websense foils me again. That site has some videos I can't see at work, I'll have to check them out tonight. I still have my Gamblers baseball hat, a few game day programs, and a bunch of ticket stubs.