The Columbus Blue Jackets have unveiled a new logo to be used this season to honor the memory of their founder John H. McConnell. It was announced on the team’s official web site yesterday.

And as one commenter on that post points out, it looks 10 times better than the logo the Chicago Blackhawks used when Bill Wirtz died:

You can’t tell if that’s a memorial or a web site plug. Screw you, Chicago, Columbus knows how to mourn.

(Yes, with football season around the bend, I’m going to be posting more. I might actually try to relaunch the site… these categories got way out of hand, and I think I’d like to move to tags anyways.)

There. Can I stop talking about it now on the air? I’m sick of coming up with new ways to refer to him. Brett. Favre. The Gunslinger. Number 4. Old Guy in Tight Pants.

UPDATE: Kotaku brings up a good point… how silly are those covers of Madden ‘09 going to look now? And is the Madden Curse back in full effect?

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians traded versatile third baseman Casey Blake and cash to the Los Angeles Dodgers for two minor leaguers on Saturday.

You know, I knew they were officially throwing in the towel when they traded CC. But this is just rubbing it in. What, the team was playing TOO WELL after Sabathia left town, so you had to crush our souls another way?

For the record, here’s what came back:

In exchange for Blake, the Indians got catcher Carlos Santana and right-hander Jonathan Meloan.

Works for me, Meloan is apparently a stud, and I’ve missed calling Johan Santana the Black Magic Pitcher since he moved to the Mets. (See, it’s all about the on-air jokes.)

The base offense is one in which a center and two tight ends surround the football, three receivers are split right, three more split left and two quarterbacks stand behind in a shotgun, one of whom has to be at least 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

Yes, it’s legal. With both quarterbacks back, it counts as a scrimmage kick formation, which means you don’t technically need people numbered as linebackers on the line. And while only 5 people can be eligible to receive passes, it doesn’t matter which 5.

While it’s nice to see innovation in football, I’m not sure if it’s a good thing that 80% of your offensive playbook is technically a “fake punt”. Spirit of the rules, and all that. As for defense, I’d think that after the shock wore off, you’d start sending more people back to cover the flats. After all, you know they’re not passing. Keep your best pass rushers on the line,  and harass the quarterback(s). And just think of all the time you’ll have on the clock when every third pass hits the turf!

That being said, how long before Gooch implements the system?

To refresh your memory, the Army implemented a rule in 2005 that if an Army member made an NFL team, he’d be reassigned to recruitment duty, so he could play in the league. A great policy, if I do say so: he’s still serving his duty (albiet, not in the giant sandbox), and he can puruse a dream of playing pro ball. Just this week, the rule was changed, and Campbell was yanked back into the real world.

Just looking at CBS Sports, you can see the two sides of the argument. Some are pissed at the US Government, while some are pissed that others are pissed. And they’re both very valid arguments… until you see this in the original story:

Despite his disappointment, Campbell said he is “really excited” for his next assignment — a year as a graduate assistant football coach for the Army, either at the U.S. Military Academy or the service academy’s preparatory school.

He’s not going overseas. He’s holding a clipboard on the sidelines.

What’s funny is that this takes the jam out of both doughnuts. Those who are livid at the Government have now, at best, half an argument, since he’s not exactly being yanked from Ford Field and dropped in Afghanistan. Yet the other side can’t lean back on the argument of “He signed up to serve, he needs to serve!” since he’s not really serving anything, except Gatorade.

First, the bad news… Former UT Grad and Patriots O-Lineman Nick Kaczur is apparently an OxyContin fiend.

Nick was busted in April by the DEA for illegal possession of Oxy and was soundly punished… by keeping it quiet. How? That’s the good news: he turned double agent.

Well, the news may be a little worse than first reported. Via ESPN:

When New England Patriots offensive lineman Nick Kaczur was arrested in upstate New York in April, he had 202 OxyContin pills labeled as being made in Canada, according to police reports, The Boston Globe reported.

I didn’t know Dr. House could play professional football, what with him being a fictional character and all.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. Those Canadian stamps apparently throw a wrench into Nick’s results as an informant as the lawyer for the accused dealer claims that the Canadian stamps prove that those pills aren’t from his client. With this struggling economy, he knows how important it is to illegally sell American-made Oxy, thank-you-very-much.

When on a Los Angeles-area radio show this past Thursday, the USC alum had this to say about Ohio State fans:

I cannot stand the Buckeyes. It’s amazing to hear what those guys think about that university and what they think about that football program and Tressel and all the crap I gotta put up with being back there. I just can’t wait for two years from now when SC comes to the ‘Shoe and hopefully we’ll have a home game that weekend and I can go up there and watch us pound on them in their own turf. I’m really getting sick of it and I just can’t wait for this game to get here so they can come out to the Coliseum and experience LA and get an old-fashioned Pac-10 butt-whoopin’ and go back to the Big Ten.

While I have no problem with Ohio State football, I’m also a fan of Carson Palmer, and an ardent hater of Buckeye Fans. So you go get ‘em, Carson.

(Follow the fanhouse link, I started a bit of a shitstorm in the comments. Whoops!)

Still, you’ve gotta feel for any poor hockey fans stuck in Peoria, who just saw their AHL Iowa Stars become the Iowa Chops:

“We really feel this name perfectly represents our vision of the new team,” team owner Kirby Schlegel, CEO of Schlegel Sports, said in a statement. “It illustrates Iowa’s agricultural heritage while also playing into the definition of chops, having nerve, resilience and staying power.

I can understand wanting to change the name, since they switch their NHL affiliation away from the Dallas Stars. But this is what happens when you start thinking about hometown connections: you become dinner.

The Mid-American Conference, in coordination with recent rebranding initiatives on MAC campuses the past several years, unveiled its new marks today (July 1) that celebrate the tradition of the league and embodies a fresh brand identity.

That new logo sure does… lean to the right. And embrace the color scheme of the Whale.

But as the folks at the Haus point out, much like good is better than bad because it’s nicer, this logo is miles better than what was:

(Also, apologies for the large gap in updates. Nothing’s really tickled my fancy as of late, and I’m just coming off a week of vacation. Plus, you don’t want me writing about what happened last week in regards to my Blue Jackets. But hey, they did sign Mike Commodore, who I will lovingly refer to as Red, White, and Blue Jacket.)