PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Changing Arizona Team Names

Episode Date: November 3, 2021

Makayla Perkins is joined by an All-Star panel of PHNX beat reporters to discuss a variety of sports topics in the Valley of the Sun! Craig Morgan, Johnny Venerable, and Greg Esposito will join the podcast to discuss their ideas for what the Arizona pro sports team names could or should have been. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome into the Phoenix Sports Podcast presented by Jack King Sportsbook America's top-rated sportsbook app. I'm your host, Michaela Perkins, and joining me today is Johnny Venerable, Greg Esposito, and Craig Morgan. And today is a super exciting episode because we have not one, but two newcomers to the Phoenix Sports podcast. Johnny and Craig, it is both your first time on the pod. Are you guys excited? Super excited. Thanks for having us. Is there some sort of initiation that's coming? Um, yes. Um, our producer Aaron has a, uh, a vat of goat blood for you to drink. Um, so we're gonna go ahead.

I knew a lot of this company. It's like, it's like Michaela's gone through that before. She's very prepared for that answer. I mean, like, it's kind of like a colt. There you go. It's good initiative. Um, well, thank you guys so much for joining us today. I'm super excited to have you on the podcast for the first time. As always, we are going to start today's pod with the Valley Sports Temperature. check, which I feel is going to be a little sad. Last week was a little rough in Arizona sports landscape. But hopefully we're on the uptick. The Suns, they won last night against the Pelicans. DeAndre Aiton, however, did not play.

Espo, do you have an update for us? They're at 500. I mean, Woo! DeAndre Aten didn't play last night. They made it sound like it was day-to-day. a deep, basically deep bruise is what it comes down to. They hit knees the other night, DeAndre, in the game against the calves.

So no official update from today practice is actually going on as we speak, hoping to hear more from Gerald Borges about that here soon. But, yeah, I probably wouldn't expect him tomorrow night since I sat him out. And with Frank Kaczyki, yeah, this is the weirdest thing. to say. It sounds even weirder coming out of my mouth, but with Frank Kaminsky playing so well, you could go another game without DA and hopefully

I kind of stem the tide. Frank was spectacular last night. We partied in Kaminsky Cove on the post game show. So we'll see how DA is playing for the team overall lukewarm is the temperature right now.

It's, you know, there's the hangover effect, I guess, that's going on. Rook warm must be nice. Yeah. I've been in freezing cold too. For a decade. I guess going from the middle of a temperature gauge to the complete freezing cold side, the coyotes are still winless.

It's not looking great, Craig. What is going on? They are one loss short of the franchise record for winless streak to start a season. They're at 10 right now. 11 was back in 2017-18, Rick Tockett's first season as coach. That was a much better team than this team. So things are not looking good. You're right.

They just found out that Connor Timmons is going to be out for the rest of the season. So one of their promising defensive prospects will not play again this year. That stings. Nick Schmaltz is probably out another month. So one of their few scoring options is out. They do have some winnable games coming up on the schedule in terms of the quality of competition. They've got Anaheim on Friday in Anaheim. Okay.

They come home and play the expansion Seattle Cracken, and the coyotes feel like an expansion team themselves. But those are opportunities where they could break the string before they move into rarefied air. The league record is 15 games to start a season winless set by the 1943, 44 New York Rangers. No other team has exceeded 11. The coyotes are getting close. So, yeah, it's fair to say they are freezing cold right now. But the tie doesn't count. It's just winless?

Winless, yeah. That's how you have to term it in the NHL. Funky, whatever it is they're doing. It's cosmetics to make them look better in the standings. You can say you're above 500 if you've won 34, lost 33, and lost 11 in overtime. So I'll say it, there's corpses with warmer temperatures than the coyotes right now. Ouch. Between Anaheim and Seattle, which game do you have them winning?

I'm calling the win against Seattle. At home, they'll come home and beat the expansion team, and they will tie the record, but they won't break it. So, Craig, my question for you is, was this certainly not expected, but did you feel like they could get off to a start like this? Yeah, I don't know that anybody expects records to be broken in terms of winless streaks. But, yeah, listen, everyone knew this was a rebuilding season. Everybody saw what they did with a roster. They stripped it down to the studs. They are, the coaches and the players are not trying to lose.

But as a franchise, they're trying to lose. I mean, this is a roster that's constructed to win 17 to 20 games in a season. They want to be at the bottom of the standings to maximize their potential to get the number one overall pick, which would lead to franchise center, Shane Wright. We know what kind of luck the coyotes have had in the lottery, but at least, you know, you're assuring yourself of a very high pick in what is expected to be one of the three best drafts of this millennium. It's a good time to have a lot of draft picks. Yes, they have eight of them in the first two rounds.

Well, speaking of losses, it took eight weeks, but the Arizona Cardinals finally lost their first game of the season on Thursday night football against the Packers. It was a great game. Yeah. Unfortunate ending, AJ Green. You got to turn around, friend. You got to turn around. Get your head around. Johnny, what do you think the Cardinals took away from that loss?

Well, I think they were outplayed in nearly every facet of that game. No singular unit played up to their capability. So it was a general consistency. That was a team loss. It wasn't only because of AJ Green's miscue. I think leading up to that game with the JJ Watt announcement that he could potentially be out for the season. everything that went into the weeks preceding that with the COVID outbreak and cliffs in and out of the coaching lineup.

I just think they were emotionally spent. And I give them credit on a quick week against Aaron Rogers. I know they were missing, you know, umpteenth amount of starters, including Devante Adams. I thought the Cardinals responded well in the second half, specifically putting together that drive that started on their one to almost win the game. So I'm not buying too much into the loss. I mean, the Packers are going to be in it to the end of the season. They could be the number one seed. But I think the bigger takeaway is, now, Kyla Murray may not play this weekend.

If I was a betty man, which I am, I would say that Colt McCoy is going to get to start this weekend against San Francisco. Ouch. I think it's still a very winnable game. But any time you're talking about your Pro Bowl franchise quarterback, potentially missing one or multiple weeks, doing a nagging injury on his lower body. And his game is predicated on not so much running anymore, but his elusiveness. That's a little bit concerning. especially, you know, they've built up credibility and collateral by starting 7 and 1.

That can't be dismissed. But when we talk about their pursuit, let's say, for a division championship or having a 1 or a 2 seat in the postseason, you have to continue to stack wins throughout the rest of the season. And if you're playing Colt McCoy, which, again, I think he's going to play well Sunday if he starts, up to upwards of three or four weeks in a row, that could lead to a string of losses that I don't know if this team's prepared for it. You remove Watt from this lineup emotionally. What toll is that going to take?

You just hope that with Kyler, if he does miss a game, it's only for this week. He can come back next week at home against Carolina. I would say the temperature check right now is still pretty warm. I don't want to overreact. And Chirson and I talked about this on the pod the other day. We've been able to stew on this loss for longer because it was a Thursday night game. And it was nationally televised. And so had this been a typical Sunday loss, I think most of us would have moved.

dawn by now, but because it was their first one, because of everything with Watt, it just feels a little bit different. Speaking of temperature checks, any concern around the facility that the last team they played was the Green Bay Packers and now Aaron Rogers? Has that with COVID? You know, my initial reaction was, did the Cardinals give Rogers COVID because of their outbreak? And that's probably backwards because the Cardinals outbreak took place two weeks prior against

the Cleveland Browns, and then they were pretty much healthy against the Houston Texans. But that is concerning, considering he's, I mean, he's like breathing on everybody. And he's interacting with Kyla Marin in the post game. They're shaking hands. But the COVID disease itself is so dicey in terms of how you can contract it. And the Cardinals test every day and they take it seriously. Unlike Aaron Rogers, they're 100% vaccinated. So we'll see if that helps.

But no, my initial thought was, oh, do the Cardinals give Aaron Rogers COVID after that game? And couldn't they have done it on Wednesday previous to the Thursday? I do know it. I do have one more question for you. Big, big trade went down before the deadline. The division rivals, the Los Angeles Rams acquired Von Miller from the Broncos. Don't even want to talk about it, but I have to. Are you concerned at all with that acquisition now that the Rams are going to pass the Cardinals in standings?

Well, I think the Rams were always going to be in it to the end of the season. I don't think this move differentiates them from the Cardinals in any stretch. I think this is a move in the divisional round in the NFC title game, whoever they're playing, if they get that far, where you need a guy to get you 10 to 15 snaps defensively and to get you key pressures in those situations.

Von Miller's not healthy right now. He's not going to play, I think, this week. This is a move with their eyes set on January football. That doesn't affect the Cardinals unless they play them. Cardinals are going to have to go beat for beat with them anyway. They've already beaten them once, and they beat them handedly. And I like Von Miller as a player,

but again, we pivoted off Patrick Peter, and quickly this off season. They were in the same year-a-class. He's old. He's almost broken. I thought the Denver Broncos, and I told you this, I thought they made out really well in that trade. You're getting ammunition now to go up and get a quarterback next year.

Von was going to, he's a free agent. To me, this is not on par with their Stafford acquisition, with their Jalen Ramsey acquisition, players in their prime, ready to contribute on multiple years. I think this was a little bit of an overpay for Denver, especially when you look at Arizona getting Zach Gertz for 30 cents on the dollar, and he's going to be a focal point. their offense. He's going to play 90% of the snaps.

Vaughn's not going to do that. Doesn't sound like you're too worried. No, I don't care about that. Well, Johnny mentioned it already. He's a betting man, and so am I. I'm actually a betting woman. I'm not a betting man. Thanks for clarifying. I just feel like I had to, you know, just thought that out there. I do all my betting on the Jack King's Sportsbook app and NFL fans.

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All right, how about we get into our main topic of the day? I'm excited for this one. This one's going to be fun. Were you not excited for the other one? isn't into the first segment. I will admit, I do say every week that I'm the most excited for this week's, but, you know, it's fine. All right. Today's topic, we are going to be changing the names of Arizona sports teams.

If we were the owners, we get to pick what we would do, what we would name them if we were in charge. A little history lesson, the reason why we're talking about this is because yesterday, November 2nd, on that day in 1995, The Arizona Diamondbacks officially unveiled their uniforms, and they used Phoenix Sun's players to do it, which I think is pretty cool. They had those guys out there in their sweet purple and teal uniforms, which they should have never changed. But that is another conversation for another time. So in honor of the Arizona Diamondbacks officially unveiling their uniforms this week in 1995, what we were talking about what we would do with the names of the teams in Arizona. I'm excited to hear, full disclosure, I have no idea. what you guys are going to say or where you're going to go.

Espo, you want to start us off? I want to start. Okay. Well, the backstory on the Sun's name, 1960, I think of 67, they get awarded, early 68 they get awarded the franchise, the Arizona Republic and the Suns decide they're going to hold a contest to name. The team, part of the deal is if you submit a name,

you get a ticket to a future game, 28,000 potential names were submitted. That's a lot. Yeah, a lot, especially when you consider the size of Phoenix back in 1968. It's not the metropolis we know now. It was a much smaller community. So 28,000 names were submitted. The winner would get season tickets and $1,000, which back then, a thousand dollars, a lot of money.

So apparently 300 people submitted sons. in it and literally jerry clangelo had to pick a name out of the hat because that was the name they decided they liked out of the 28,000 and then they had to pick a name out of the hat as from those 300 that won in a woman named salinda king who was employee of the state's health department one yeah yeah so there's a there's a famous photo of uh i believe it was johnny red cur the original coach jerry colangelo and this woman and i never really They're holding this giant cardboard thing that has a logo that never actually became the son's logo. And the logo is fascinated me.

But I never realized there's this little woman standing in the right corner of that photo, who apparently was Celinda King, the woman who got credit for naming the team. So that's kind of the history behind it. There was apparently sorrows, scorpions, tumbleweeds that were all submitted. None really strike me as, you know, a team. I actually saw a typewriter list when I was working for the team that had a bunch of the submissions. There's like sun jets, which I don't know what a sun jet is. But, yeah, I don't know. I feel like you'd wind up in a battle with the sharks at some point if you're a sunjet.

That's a really bad musical reference that nobody probably gets. No, right over ahead. Sharks and jets, no. Oh, yeah. West Side. Thank you. All right. Nope.

I was there with you, buddy. I can always trust that Craig knows where I'm at. So yeah, I struggle with this because this name is synonymous with the Valley, is synonymous with sports here. The colors, I'll say this, the colors are perfect. I love the colors. There is not a damn thing. I would take out the heavy use of black that's happened in the last 15 years with the team. But purple and orange is the perfect.

The perfect palette for... Did you like the electric orange uniforms when they had them? No. You didn't. See, I loved them. Wait, which one? The ones, the current orange ones? No, no.

Previous, like when Sean Marion was here. The Nash one? No, they look like Home Depot smocks. I just, like, you could wear that in Home Depot. And so we go, hey, can you help me get lumber? No, I was not a fan. That in the airport code on the front, the pH and X not, or pHX in that case on the uniform. I added our own end in there.

But on that uniform and gray never worked for me. Do you like the nickname Sons? Do you think it works? That's what I struggle with. You too. It's a really lame nickname because when you compare, like when you're going and if, you know, the old joke is, you know, if somebody that doesn't know, sports is picking games, they're picking between the mascots.

Nobody's picking a son. And I get it. The sun's the most powerful thing. It creates things that grow. But like, you're not. You're not going to fight a son. Like, how is that going to happen? If I want to avoid it, I'll just step into the shade.

Yeah, exactly. Fight it by not putting on sunscreen. Yeah, look, I put on sunglasses. I've defeated you. Ah, you know, like, I don't. That was always my problem with the name. I also, full disclosure, I hated the gorilla. Like, how do you have the sun and then go with a gorilla?

There's a story of that in the early 80s, a singing telegram was sent to somebody court side, which is part of the story is still insane to me. You're at a basketball game and somebody sends you a, singing telegram, right? It's bizarre, but the guy came dressed as a gorilla, and he hammed it up on the sidelines. The crowd loved it, so they kept inviting them back. That's how they wanted up with a gorilla as their mascot.

Why do I feel like the professor of Arizona Sports History? Because you are. That's what you are. I'm like on this show. That's your new nickname. The professor. Nerd. Oh, I love that.

I still hate the gorilla, but I love the professors. So I struggle with it. But the thing is, I don't know that there's anything better because it's just become so synonymous with basketball. It is so cool. And the logo is so cool. Like, the logo fits so, like, it's such the burst. And even the original one is such a cool way to encapsulate the orange basketball with the orange sun. And I'm like, okay.

So I don't think I would change the suns is where I come down to. If I were going to. That's the peanut gallery. You guys, you suck. How dare you want to besmirch sick the team that's been here for 50. Yes, but what are you and I just talking about West Side story from a little now? It's not an option. You have to tell me what you would change it to.

If you had to change it. If I had to change it, oh, it's tough. But I would have gone with something like the Wranglers. I would have just played into the Western theme because in 1968, that's all anybody knew about. They thought it was cactus, cowboy hats and salooning. Doors is what they thought of Phoenix. So if I was going to go away with from what they did, I would have leaned into what everybody knew Phoenix as.

And they eventually did with their uniforms. They had that really old school Western font. Yeah. I would have just played that up and gone wranglers or outlaws or, you know, something like that that kind of fit the motif and the mindset of people at the time. The Phoenix Wranglers is a, I love that. Yeah. I really, really like that.

The Arizona Wranglers want up being at the U.S. a fell team in the in the mid 80s but I think it would have worked well as an NBA team too I just have a problem with mascots that are inanimate objects I'm just yeah I just don't get it you know like the eat yeah yeah there's another great and singular names too by the way I hate singular name but like you hear things like soaros well let's go swar what's threatening about a swarrow I mean I have to actively it hurts that soror to get injured by it right if I walk in move yeah it's my own fault that defeats me It's like one step below, like, the zombies on walking dead.

It's really easy to avoid them. They're moving at one mile an hour. What's the threat here? I don't like Swaros. I get it. I don't get it. The only thing for the suns is, you know, when you say, well, I want to shoot that person to the sun. Like, that is a threat, but I don't think, you know, the, there's nothing imposing about sons.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's where I am. It's a good name for the, I mean, it makes sense. The Valley of the Sun. Sure. six five days of sunshine or whatever it is.

It makes sense. Yeah. If I were naming the team from a, from a, you know, purpose to get people to come vacation here, great, you know, but from an intimidating sports team, it never had that gravitas, but it's also so entrenched in everything. It's hard to imagine them having been named something different. I think the Phoenix Wranglers is a great name, though. I actually really like that.

I'm kind of sad now that they're not with the Phoenix Ranglers. All right, Craig, the Arizona Coyotes moved here from one of a few. Pegg, how do you feel about coyotes? What were the other options? And what would you pick for the team if it weren't? Well, first of all, I'm glad they changed from Jets because that wouldn't have made any sense. I'm not sure it makes sense in Winnipeg either, to be honest. I don't get it.

I don't know in a Tempey arena with the FAA stuff. It might make sense with Jets, you know. We can talk about that red herring of an issue. They had a, like the Sons, they had a name the team contest. And of course, Coyotes won. A lot of people were. pushing for roadrunners. And there's a historical element to that. Obviously, the roadrunners played here in both in a couple different leagues. They were in the WHA way back when they were in the

IHL. And there's some really great stories. In fact, I came to a roadrunners game when I was a kid and watched Robbie Fittorick play at the old Coliseum. There's a lot of history with the roadrunners there. I thought it would have been cool if they had chosen that. Eventually, the coyotes got around to naming their HAL team down in Tucson, the Roadrunners. So at least they kept the nickname. That's where I would go if I were to change it, but I have to be honest, I like the coyote's nickname. Again, it fits. It says Arizona. The, the Kachina logo is unbelievable.

I do think it's one of the best in pro sports. So I'm actually a big fan of the nickname that they chose. And that was the one that won. They did have a few others in the running. Road owners finished third. What came in second was Scorpions, which is another nickname that I'd love to hear because I think teams tend to go too conservative with their nicknames across the board, college, pro whatever they just don't take chances like the Seattle Cracken did which that was way outside the

box and then fourth place was the Wranglers actually so that was also in the running for the hockey team here I I would have you know I would have loved for them to go with the road runners and do what they did in Tucson with actually going with with a Gacchina logo and reimagining reimagining that that would have been a lot of fun you know it's I like what the indoor lacrosse team did with the scorpion logo but Sting is the name that could have been a cool way to go about it but I think in the end the coyotes does really fit like a coyote's not very intimidating though it's like a small desert dog have you ever seen a coyote like what the damage you can do it's it's a little scary it's like I live out in the far east valley a lot of them

roam our neighborhood they're not a little rabid yeah scraggly it's scary like I wouldn't want to get bit buy one, but also, like, I'm much more scared of a penguin. Yeah. A flyer. Like a, yeah. Okay, no. The whole idea of a Ranger, right? It works on so many levels.

I really believe you need to choose something that says Arizona if you're going to have a team here. We'll get to the Cardinals in a minute. And there are good reasons for them to keep their name. But there are so many possibilities that say Arizona that the teams could have chosen. You could have gone with Gila monsters if you want to be. really outside the box, right? You don't like Gila monsters? What is that?

That's a giant lizard. Once it latches onto you, you like some sort of vice to take it off or some major tool to get its jaws unlocked from you. I've seen one on a golf course and they're scary. They're scary. We just skipped the green because it was just basking in the sun. They're like the alligators of the desert. Yeah, basically. If you had to change, if you had to change the name.

I'd go to roadrunners. Roadrunners. Okay. Makes sense. I like it. Does that mean the roadrunners in Tucson have to rebrand? Probably. Just trade them.

Coyotes. Yeah, there you go. The Tucson Coyotes. What about tarantulas and hovelinas too, though? You like those? You're taking all my names. I'm sorry, man. I'll stop talking.

Deep cuts here. I don't like tarantulas. Just because you don't like spiders? Yeah. Yeah. It all depends on the logo, too. Like, you can go one way, and if the name's cool, but the logo is cheesy, It ruins it too.

So you wouldn't have the big Disney eyes on a tarantula? No. The old ducks. I look at that. I look at it seem like the Oregon ducks. Like nobody's intimidated by a duck, but their color scheme, the big, oh, the different uniforms. I like the uniforms with the wings.

You can own that approach. It doesn't matter what your mascot is. Yeah. I mean, yeah, if you own it and you become a cool look, but they still got Donald Duck from them on the sidelines. There's nothing intimidating about that. Puddles is really cute, though. I love puddles.

It's great. It's Donald Duck. Don't call them puddles. Like, how did Disney not sue the crap out of Oregon? They are, basically. They look like they could basically switch spots. Nobody know the difference. I think Phil Knight paid them off.

That may be that. That's true. Nike can pull that off. That's true. Craig, are you keeping in Arizona? Would you do Arizona Roadrunners or Phoenix Roadrunners? I want it to be Phoenix. I like the city name in front of that.

I'm not a big fan of state names in front. Okay. Are you Phoenix Ranglers for the Phoenix Suns, too? Yeah. I wouldn't change. I wouldn't change to Arizona. I mean, that's one of the unique things. The Sons have been such a big part of the Phoenix community for so long.

Even when there was talks that they might look outside of downtown, it was like, don't change it to Arizona. That just doesn't feel right. And I feel the coyotes are a very similar way. I feel Phoenix always felt right with that when you heard it. Yeah. I still struggle with Arizona when I hear it. Yeah.

All right. So we have the Phoenix Ranglers from the Phoenix Ranglers. from the Phoenix Suns, Phoenix Roadrunners from the Arizona Coyotes. Johnny, what would you do with the good old Arizona Cardinals? So this is difficult for me because my father has been a lifelong Cardinal fan and it was inherited to me and we're from the Midwest as are the Cardinals. So they started in Chicago and you guys can keep me honest here if I have a hiccup. But I believe they have the red because they wanted to mirror the University of Loyola

just like the Alina and the Chicago Bears. So they shared a team with Chicago and eventually pivoted, and they became the Cardinals in part because that's the state bird in Illinois. And then they moved to St. Louis where they shared Bush Stadium, I think Bush Stadium 2, with the baseball Cardinals, which is all kinds of confusing. They actually used to hold fun fact their training camp in my hometown of normal Illinois and play at Redbird where the Redbirds are. So you'd be able to drive past the, I can't remember what. the stadium is in normal Illinois, but you'd see a team with a cardinal on their helmet. They'd be like, oh, there's the Redbirds. They're getting ready for spring football.

Nope, it's actually the Arizona Cardinals. They'd be at being the St. Louis Cardinals, getting ready for the season. So they have never had a permanent home up until this point. I like the idea. And by the way, they came here, of course, in 88, had the name Phoenix Cardinals from 88 to 98, and then changed to Arizona. 95. 95, yeah.

Then changed to Arizona. I read from, like, they wanted a state. appeal, not just to be inundated with just Phoenix, which I think is also a mistake. I would definitely keep the Phoenix portion of it. Even when they play in Glendale? Well, they played in Tempe, when they had Phoenix. Is there never played in Phoenix? No, never. That's nitpicking at this point. I think that the Cardinals are a great look. It just doesn't, there are no Cardinals here. It just doesn't fit with desert mentality, desert climate. I love the white helmets and the color scheme. The current uniforms, we know this, they're terrible,

they're awful. I do believe that they'll have new uniforms next season. I think Michael Bidwell is in tune with the fan base now and the players when you have Kyla Moran company ripping the uniforms. As long as they keep the white helmets, I'll be satisfied. I actually kind of like the logo too, but if I were to change the name, like Craig gave out a bunch of good examples, I think you have to change it to a moniker that's associated with the desert. Do you guys know what the Arizona State bird is by chance? Cactus wren. How would you know that?

Because they know everything. I would probably change it to the Phoenix Cactus Wren and just have it be consistent with the bird because this team is synonymous with the bird, go away from the Cardinals, take on the Cactus Red moniker. You wouldn't want to go the Roadrunner angle? I just hijacked the hockey team. Yeah, they have to be able to fly.

And high flying offenses historically in Arizona, Kurt Warner, Carson Palmer, now Kyla Marie. Even though Kyler Murray's game kind of simulates a roadrunner a little bit. But those are probably be my top too, honestly. I love that you say historically and then you give me the last 12 years. And you forget the 80s and 90s where we didn't see any quarterback play in Phoenix. We could name a bunch of them. I feel like I started my phone, though.

Yeah. Well, I guess like a mouthful. I'm just trying to stay consistent with their current mascot. and have it be a seamless transition. It's not as visually pleased. Like, the Cardinals are a good-looking mascot, I think. I think their logo is strong. The Cactus Wren is, like, kind of an ugly bird,

and it's got muted colors. So, I mean, I don't really have a great answer other than I would go back to Phoenix Cardinals if you were keeping the Cardinals. And you have to keep the white helmets, but got the current uniforms. Why keep the white helmets? I just, that's just history?

Yeah, I think white on anything looks good, like the Chargers helmet with the single lightning bowl. That's a personal preference, though. Well, and I don't think the bidwills will ever go away from it because it is a very family, since it is a family run business, that white helmet is something that's always, it's white helmet gray face masks. I think that's always going to be part of it. But, yeah. And that's the argument for keeping the Cardinals, too.

There's so much history behind this franchise. You get it. And knowing Mr. B as well and how much he was steeped in tradition and probably didn't care too much about branding and marketing when he arrived. tier, right? You get why they kept the Cardinal. I get the argument for it. But to me, it's one of those nicknames that when you move, you should have changed because it just doesn't fit Arizona. Like we've talked about with the Utah Jazz. What? It doesn't make sense for the LA Lakers. Those nicknames just don't make sense where they are now. Well, and we were talking about this too before. Outside of, I think New York, the New York Giants and the New York Jets and New England,

there isn't another team that's not after the city. Like Arizona's the state, but I can't think of another football team that. And New York doesn't, they don't even play in New York. They play in New Jersey. Any sense. And the Jets, not to get on a tent. The Jets had a better name than the Jets. They were originally the Titans of New York.

How do you change your name from the Titans of New York to the Jets? Anyways. Yeah. So I also am on the same page that it should be the, at the very least the Phoenix Cardinals. I think it's weird that it's Arizona. I never understood the reason to, I guess, wanting to be more inclusive is. That's what I did. I tried to do some research.

You guys keep me honest here. That's the only thing that I could find. It was a marketing thing. The coyote said the same thing when they changed Arizona. I think I suspect it was also a slight to Glendale. One thing I wish the Carls would do. Have you ever seen the logo, which is the full body? Cardinal?

No. From the Chicago, I believe it was a jacked up. Maybe in St. Louis. It may be it under the arch. And it's a human buff body. with the Cardinals head on it. And I'm like, okay, it's hilarious. I don't like that.

That's scary. I'd have like nightmares about it. That's what I like a cardinal man. And that's their match got to. It's like intimidating. All right. Well, we can't leave out of the Diamondbacks. I did a little bit of research on the Diamondbacks.

So in 1995, Jerry Clangelo also was the owner at that time. He took out a full page ad in the Arizona Republic. Same type of deal. He wanted a naming contest. Wanted to include the people of Arizona in the naming of the new baseball team. and if they won, they would get full lifetime season tickets to the Diamondbacks. The other options that people came up with besides Diamondbacks were Phoenix, like a Phoenix, Firebird thing, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, the coyotes as well, the Rattlers and Scorpions.

I hate the Phoenix. What are you going to do, the Arizona Phoenix? Phoenix, Phoenix. The Phoenix Phoenix? That doesn't make any sense. Why would you go, why would you call on the Phoenix? I like the Phoenix as a mass. Scott. It's a cool, which obviously, you know, The Rising Now has kind of figured out a way to incorporate it into their team without calling themselves.

Or the old Firebirds, right? Well, yeah, the Firebirds, the original, not the original, the Phoenix Giants were the original. But in the 80s and 90s, the Phoenix Firebirds were the minor league AAA team. And I loved that branding blue, red and yellow, really cool firebird logo. Like that, that was cool. Yeah, definitely cool. And so the story goes, apparently the scorpion actually won. But Jerry Colangelo vetoed it because he's scared of scorpions and did not want, he said, I think the exact quote was, they give me the willies. So he didn't want the name of baseball team, the scorpion because he doesn't like scorpions and thus the diamondbacks were born. I personally don't like the diamond back name.

I think it's too long. It's a mouthful. I hate how they shorten it to D-backs. It sounds like D-bags, which is not great. I never thought of that before, but now I'll never get it out of my head. I'm sorry. You're just going to be thinking about it. Any time that your team name can be short into something that a New York cabby yells at somebody that cuts them off, hey, D-Backs.

Yeah, exactly. You don't want that. You know, like, you don't want it to sound like that. I also hate that their mascot is a bobcat. Obviously, I understand why with Bank One ballpark Bob, Bobcat. I get that. That's all gone now. But it's all gone, and it's weird now that you have the Diamondbacks and your mascot's Bobcat.

I don't like that either. So I honestly, you know, I like the name Scorpion. I would have gone with the Arizona Scorpions as the name for the baseball team. And especially now considering that I've seen the branding for the Cleveland spiders, they were going to change the name for the Cleveland baseball team to the Cleveland spiders. And the concepts that they came up with that was so cool. And I'm so mad that they picked guardians because I think the Cleveland spiders would have been the best choice for the new name. So looking at what they did with spiders, if the scorpions look anything like that,

I think it would have been awesome. Arizona needs it to name the scorpions. It does. Phoenix needs it. Imagine what you could have done with like the bat as the logo and the tail like of the scorpion. Like, yeah, there's a lot you could have played with. Fun fact, they were close to picking Rattlers. They were going to take the entire color scheme and everything from the Arizona Rattlers,

the indoor football team. And they actually had mocked up and test uniforms and hats done like that. like that. So that was very close to coming to fruition before Diamondbacks took the lead. Gotcha. Well, I did not know that. I'm just bummed that they didn't go with Scorpions. Jay Clangelo, if you're listening to this, which I know you're not.

I'm sad. Miss opportunity. Miss opportunity. All right, well, those, that's what are, do you guys have any other suggestions for Diamondbacks before we? I would have gone Firebirds, but that's just because I love that logo. I love the tide of history, just like the roadrunners.

Yeah, Arizona Firebirds or Phoenix Firebirds? Phoenix. Phoenix Firebirds. And you use the Phoenix as your mascot. It works perfectly. Yeah, that actually would have been really cool. I like that too. Phoenixes are my favorite mythological creature, fun fact.

All right, so those are our nominations for what we would change our team names to. But we want to know what you would change the names to. We are going to put our nominations on Twitter in a poll. You can vote on ours and you can also give us your recommendations if you think that you have a better name than what we came up with. Last week, our topic was the best nickname in Arizona sports history. And with 57% of the vote, the big unit won, blew everybody out of the water. It wasn't even close. So congrats to the big unit.

Why are you shaking your head? You don't like that pick? Well, I was on the show, so I lost is what I'm shaking my head about you. Yes, ESPO nominated for Charles for the Sun. I'm selfish. I don't, I just want to win. So congrats to the big unit. You guys won that I think that was the right full pick.

I think that's the right choice. I don't know. Can I throw one more nickname out there? Yeah, absolutely. For the Mercury? Yeah. You should have gone with black widows. Ooh, that's not.

That's not in our play quite like eating your mate right after sex. That would have been epic. We're clipping that and I'm using that on numerous shows from now on, Craig. Thank you. Are you guys betting on anything this weekend? Do you guys have any bets in right now on Jack King's Sportsbook? I've got a couple college lines that I like. I like the Arizona State Sun Devils to cover this weekend against USC.

That is bold. I like Washington to cover plus seven against the now suddenly fourth place or fourth ranked Oregon Ducks. And then I also like what was my last pick. Well, I think Cincinnati is going to cover, I believe, against Tulane this weekend because they're extra pissy. They got left out of the college football final four. Got to love. Yes, Johnny, the Betts guy. I know, yeah.

16 of them. I'm going to take the coyote's puck line and money line against the cracking. I love that. See, that was going to be mine, so I guess I just say ditto now. They're going to get their first win. They're going to get their first win on Saturday. Use code PHNX. When you sign up, if you place $5 on an

NFL team to win and they do, you'll get $200 and free bets. If you haven't checked out our PHNX bets show with Johnny yet, you absolutely need to do that. Johnny and Shane get you up to date with all the best lines and spreads and picks in a sports so make sure you check that out.

Make sure you follow us on social at PHNX underscore sports where you'll find our poll from this week's show so you can vote and nominate your own team names. Thank you guys so much for tuning in and we will see you next week.