Football: Who wants to name the new team in town?

All the way back on June 20, the league offices of af2, the Arena Football League's developmental league, chose unanimously to award a franchise to the folks in Albany, NY. This came one season after the AFL's Albany Firebirds skipped town to Indianapolis after former owner Glen Mazula announced he had sold to a group in Indianapolis because he couldn't afford to keep the franchise any longer.

In early September, the franchise announced the hiring of Ron Seleski as head coach of the franchise. Seleski was coach of the Louisville Fire last season and was an assistant with the Tampa Bay Storm from 1997-99.

Along came September 11, when the franchise was going to announce the new name and colors for the franchise, which was the Warbirds. But because of the tragic events that transpired three hours to the south of Albany, the franchise has been forced to look in a new direction. Feeling that the new name and logo would be offensive, the franchise remains nameless and has gone back to the drawing board.

It's been almost two months since the almost announcement and the franchise still hasn't come up with a team name, logo, or colors. What's the deal?

I wouldn't have been offended at the Warbirds' name at all. How is it that the name and logo are offensive? I could've understood that it was wrong at the time of the WTC tragedy, but the name is offensive? How, and in what way? Is it going to offend the peaceniks and whistleblowers that protest every aspect of war, even if it's a small effort? Don't get me wrong, the battles we're fighting in Afghanistan aren't small. Neither am I a heartless soul. But the question remains, how is the name "Warbirds" offensive?

I've always wondered why, if all else fails, the new franchise doesn't buy the naming rights for the Firebirds and let those guys in Indiana have their own name. The folks who moved the original Iowa Barnstormers of the AFL to Long Island allowed the af2 franchise to keep the Barnstormers name. So why shouldn't the Firebirds' name return to Albany? I've always known the Firebirds as an Albany team, and at times last season, it hurt a little when the Indiana Firebirds were mentioned because that was originally our team. We had grown accustomed to watching the Firebirds every summer since the beginning of the nineties.

All arguments aside, the new franchise needs a name and quick. Football fans around the Albany area that miss Arena Football are growing restless because of the fact that there is no name for this franchise. If the heads of the franchise do not act quickly, they'll lose fans even before game one.