Thursday, June 4, 2009

An interesting exchange with PSL victim

Stiener is on the DL for 2-4 weeks with back surgery. Today is the day, june 2, that the NY jets are going to call for the right to pick my seats for the new stadium and deposit $500 a seat for the 2010 season which is 15 months away. I will be sitting further and higher away then I do now after 29 years of being a ticket holder which pisses me off . At least I qualify for non-psl seats, a lot of my fellow jet fans, ticket holders for 25 years or so, are not going to have the oppurtunity to choose non-psl upper deck seats and be forced to make a choice between $7,500 PSL's and giving up the seats because long time holders ( 30+) who sit in the lower level are opting for upper deck seats to avoid the PSL. Do not be suprised that the Jets do not sell out for 2010 and are blacked out. Unlike Mr. Geary, and the Giant fans, most Jet fans will refuse to pay $10,000 a seat for the right to buy a ticket. That happens when your team continually dissapoints you.


Stiener,

Have to agree with you whole-heartedly. It seems to me to be a strategic error to make your loyal fan base, demographic, customer, whatever re-evaluate whether it's worth being a fan anymore. Being a football fan all my life, I never doubted it would be so until I croaked. This whole PSL thing has brought me to a place I never thought I could wind up... wondering if I should trash the whole idea of being a football fan.
I'm a capitalist through and through but when it no longer feels like an honest negotiation but some kind of anal rape without even the common courtesy of a little lube... well it makes you wonder. The loyalties to the sport, the team etc always to me seemed something deeper than just a monetary transaction and I think the teams and league would have been wise to continue to make their millions without rocking that boat. It has, for me, been a tradition, a lifelong habit and a kind of social glue that could cut across all kinds of boundaries to provide common emotional and conversational ground with so many different people. It has provided landmarks throughout my life and NFL events have been intertwined with other life events to create and intertwined tapestry. It hasn't been like other entertainment products that collect in the closet after a time, things that sit by my side as possesions but rather a series of threads in the very fabric of my life.
By this abuse and unseemly psycho determination to squeeze the very last possible nickel from us fans, they have reminded me that in the end it is just an entertainment product and there is a certain level of abuse that will cause me to walk away and find some other avenue for fullfilling my desire for vicarious violence. And once that bond is broken there is no going back to the way it used to be. Once that golden egg goose has croaked there is no avian defibrillator to bring it back.
I dearly hope that there is a blackout and a backlash and that the overzealous MBA's in the front offices get chased out of town by torch and pitchfork carrying mobs all across the country. Or perhaps the time has finally arrived for a competing league aimed at those of us who love football but don't want to feel like we're being abused as a payback for our years of loyalty and patronage. Whew. That was quite the mountain of metaphors eh? So whats up with the back?

Ken

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Breaking news

FFF correspondent Stiener checks in from the Magic Kingdom



Now this is good stuff...

Guys, Stiener here. on vacation in the land of the mouse, F' ing Disney. I want to choke that rodent.

As your field reporter/ AFC man, I have some info for you if you have not seen it. Yes, Titan man will be in the house for throw back weekend!!!!! 04/29 — Head coach Rex Ryan and the organization have established the games in which the Jets will wear their Titans throwback uniforms in 2009.The good news is that, in conjunction with the AFL 50th Anniversary Season theme ahead, the Jets will wear their throwback unis in three games, not two.The even better news is that in two of those three games, the uniforms will be a new color scheme: Titans white road jerseys with navy letters and numbers and navy and gold striping to go along with the gold pants from the past two seasons.The only time the Jets will wear their navy jerseys will be Game 3 at the Meadowlands vs. the Tennessee Titans. We hear the Titans will be going with the powder-blue uniforms of their Houston Oilers ancestors, so that game will really capture the 50th Anniversary theme: (New York) Titans vs. (Houston) Oilers. Then the white jerseys, never before worn by the Jets, will be unveiled in back-to-back games, also against original AFL opponents. On Oct. 26 the Jets will wear the white and gold at Oakland against the Raiders. The next week, they'll stay in the white jerseys to play the Miami Dolphins at the Meadowlands. That will be the first home game in which the Jets wore white jerseys and forced the Dolphins to wear their aqua tops since possibly 1989.The Jets are 3-1 in 2007-08 while wearing their navy and gold throwbacks, including wins the last three times they wore their old Titans home uniforms — at Miami in '07, then in back-to-back home wins over Arizona and Cincinnati last season.

God, it's great to be alive. Above is the oft pictured original Titan away jersey. Questions pop up. Will any player wear the long sleeves? Will they go all the way... that way? Will the sleeve numbers remain on the sleeve below the shoulder stripe or will they be moved to the top of the shoulder?
Will Titan man's volatile relationship with his unstable girlfriend finally be shattered when she realizes that he'll shell out a small fortune for an authentic 60's Oilers jersey but chintzes on flowers for her birthdays?
There's some suspense cookin' in the kitchen and it smells delicious ; )

Friday, April 17, 2009

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Well, I made the fatal error. Much like Charlie Brown or his brother in arms Doug, I looked at the mess of a filing system in my website software and decided that I should "organize" it so that I could post my nonsense more efficiently. Some people never learn. Of course instead of saving time it led to a complete breakdown and took me days to straighten out and in the end I was counting my blessings that my webhost could back up my site to what it was last week, chaotic files and all. The upshot is that once the site is restored to last week, the link to the Gene Upshaw and the love column may not function for a few hours.

Meanwhile I got a little feedback from the fashion commisioner on the latest weekly column and thought it might provide an amusing insight to how thing work behind the curtain here at FFF. Heres the email exchange


Referencing the Gene Upshaw column, Rich writes,

Great article Ken, and you know you had to place the sticker on the back. It took time to get the payoff but who is laughing now? Sense and sensibility in all things in life including this ridiculous preoccupation with fashion. Football Fashion. The commish is proud of you. Now, let's get you a green communication sticker to show you are getting all the audibles from the site foreman. That will get this concrete heads to step up and take notice of you're god given gift. By the way, check out the ESPN article concerning The original eight AFL teams are wearing 1960 throwback jerseys to commemorate fifty years of AFC football. Oh the wonders of fashion never cease. NY GIANT MAN ( NFL Commissioner of Fashion



My reply

Greetings GIANT MAN ! The green communication sticker says it all. It was so obvious as a next step and yet I missed it. Truly you are the master ; ) Aesthetically, I'm not a fan of it, but as a one-up fashion move it will leave all others eating my dust and as such is a must (poet and not aware of it) The one two punch of the two of them will make for a visual knockout and make me undisputed king of the fashion hill. While we're at it, my rectangular flag sticker finally succumbed to wear and tear and I was forced to replace it with a "rippling in the wind" version that is a little to big. U may have noticed this in the picture. This will have to be replaced with a regulation version and be moved to the back of the hard hat along with the others. I liked it at the front of my head-back of the helmet when there were no other stickers on it but for the harmony and integrity of the piece I think it should be grouped with the others. The front of my head will only sport the understated little "local 638" decal that sits at the base of the two stripes right above the brim. I think this is a tastefull and appropriate nod to the organization that sponsors the whole endeavor. I just got and cropped a pic to show the 638 decal and I can see in this that the flag isn't a little too big, it's horribly oversized and I never should have put it on. It's hideous and I feel embarassed and ashamed. Much like the defensive back who has to watch in the film room as they replay him getting burned over and over and then in slo mo... It was the last few days of the job and I was punchy from the cold. Thats my excuse. I have seen the pictures of the 50th anniversary AFL uni's and love 'em. My question is are they going to wear them all season or just once or twice a la throwback? I've heard rumblings of a new Dolphin helmet and have heard it's already been leaked but haven't found it yet. Are you aware of this? Ken



The commisioners response to that



So well put as always. Do not despair Ken, the American Flag decal was in vogue so what can you do. I do believe, that you should get the regulation size flag decal for the helmet. I may even have one so I will take a look and send it out to you.

The word on the throwbacks is that each of the eight teams will wear their throwbacks at least twice during the season. I believe they will also were the uniforms when they go head to head as well. A good example is the Jets ( titans) vs Titans (Oilers). I think Oilerman needs to make an appearance at that one since it is going to be played at the meadowlands. If this is the case, I will need to get an old blue oil derrick style Oiler helmet. Seams like overkill and yes, it is. In 1994, the teams had to use their throwbacks twice as well, but the NFL at that time let the teams wear their jerseys more than once if they so chose to do so. The Giants in 1994 wore the sixties uniform many times that year. I do not believe the NFL is so cavalier about letting teams just wear the jerseys as much as they want to anymore. I would like to see each throwback team wear their jersey once on the road and once at home.

Think about it Ken. Have we seen the Jets/Titans wear the white road jersey. No we have not. I think that should be the requirement, but I feel the league will screw this up. So as far as I know, eight original teams, will wear their jerseys in two matchup games this year. I will be scanning the wire for further updates..

New Dolphis Helmet! Yes. That is news. Should be a front cover story complete with some early seventies Super Bowl memories .

It never stops.




Then Stiener weighed in with this bit that answers the Titan road jersey issue the commisioner brought up...



Fella's, saw this on the Jet site when reading an article about the 2009 schedule. There should be lots of old uniforms showing up around the NFL with the 50th anniversary. . Jets going to the white road Titan uni's. Its gonna be your type of season, lots of fanatical discussions you wild and crazy guys!!! Six games against four original AFL teams in this AFL 50th Anniversary Season. Besides the Patriots and Bills twice, the Jets play the Tennessee Titans (née Houston Oilers) at home Sept. 27, and at the Raiders Oct. 25. The Jets will wear their home navy Titans uniforms for one of these three home games and will debut their road Titan white unis at one of the three road games.



God, I love it

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Overpatching and Life imitates Tom Geary... again




Ok, look at the picture above and prepare for more of the dead horse beating that is the main theme of this blog. I refer to, of course, railing against going the fashion violations far to common with the NFL uniform. The overpatching on Kerry Rhodes is obvious. Do we really want our guys to look like some third rate euro soccer team with patches and cheesy ads on every available square inch of the uni? Do we want the Chico's bail bonds ad splayed across the cornhole of every swingin' dick on the sideline? Four patches within 6 inches of the mans neck? A little much, doncha think? Yadda yadda yadda, you know my rant by now.

So lets get to the main issue today. Once again life imitates Tom Geary. I mean, is this getting spooky or what? For those of you who saw that pic in the last column http://www.footballfashionfanatics.com/quick_hits_115.html u know that somehow Eli Manning bore an undeniable resemblance to our own Crazy Legged guitar maestro, the croaking crooner Tom Geary.
Now I open the paper today and heres this picture of Joba Chamberlain at the White House and, you know, go ahead... tell me that isn't another sports celeb imitating Tom. I double dog dare ya. Strap a guitar on him and put a can of suds at his side and viola! it's no longer a visiting Yankee, it's open mic night at the Obama-rama lounge. It's uncanny.
Well anyway we're back in business over here at FFF. My work trip back to NY for the past two months kept me from prime directive which is to blog and obsess about this crap. Well, ok maybe I could have done some blogging from Casa De Hermann but I had a higher calling, a civic duty to attend to. First of all was the Fourth annual PFL. An event of such scope, magnitude and alchohol consumption that it renders most participants useless for weeks afterwards. As the executive producer the time demands, liver damage and brain cell loss are even greater. But the show must go on so the blog took a back seat to the demands of Paper Football and earning the money to buy beer for the event.
In addition to that, in these troubled economic times many industries teeter on the brink and it was obvious to me that the entire NY strip joint industry was in danger of circling the drain. Since I was temporarily free of family obligations I took it on myself to spend all my time away from the job furiously stuffing dollar bills into g-strings to support all the single moms swinging around the stripper pole. It's just the kind of guy I am. I was raised to pitch in and lend a hand when someones in trouble. I knew you, my loyal one and a half readers would understand. .... you're welcome.
I may not be writing columns and items as often during the off season but there won't be any more two month breaks. Stay tuned, I feel a lot of nonsense brewing and a season ripe with uni-changes and fresh material comin' up ; )
Ken

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Signs of life

Oh my God !

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah I know it's been a while since my last post. The holiday season, new kid etc kept me from a computer. Plus I'm in the good ol US again on a work tour and haven't re-established suitable computer access yet.
The playoffs have provided a plethora of excitement, disappointment and fashion details to the point that my head is near exploding but until I get my website software on a usable computer I can't go all out with posts. But every day gets me nearer to that goal. Have faith... hang in there... the fashion updates are on the way.
But not before next week because this saturday is the paper football league annual tournament. An event without precedent..... because nobody was twisted enough to think of it before... Check out the awesome T-shirt design.