Wait, what?
Yep. They didn't want to go with Jets (like I have said over, and over again.)
Why? Maybe for the same reasons I had. Maybe for different reasons. Who knows. They aren't really commenting on that part.
Is it shocking? It sounds shocking, but if you look carefully at the evidence, it sorta adds up. Here's a video of the official reveal of the name at the NHL Draft by Mark Chipman.
Note how bland the name is delivered. Not with a lot of fanfare. Not with a massive announcement at the arena, not with a video release. Hell, they didn't even have the name printed on anything at the Draft. Bigger hell, the owner didn't even put an exclamation point at the end of the sentence naming the team. He's not smiling or looking in the camera or anything! Wow. He kinda looks like a losing presidential canidate making his concession speech rather than trying to rally a city around a team name.
The second guy (Kevin Cheveldayoff) is a little bit more entusiasitic, but not much more. Maybe they are bad public speakers. Could be. There's a lot of pressure there, so it's understandable. Plus, the name was leaked earlier in the day, so it's not like this was surprisingly new information.
Still, you would think they would be a little bit more entusiastic.
But here's where some more evidence starts piling up. For one thing, the Winnipeg Jets website doesn't have any information I can find on the name and how they arrived at it. Odd. Seems like a popular question.
Now, let's look at the articles that were released right after the team told the name. You can read the first one if you'd like, but take my word for it. The team doesn't talk about the name decision at all. Or that they are happy about it or anything like that. And this was an article released specifically talking about the new name and head coach. They mostly concentrate on the coach. Even though the title of the article is entitled: Winnipeg gets name (Jets) and coach (Claude Noel). Seems like the team would be pushing their thrill with the name over and over again to get the fans more pumped up, but no. They aren't quoted as saying anything about it and I would have to believe it would have warranted a quote in the article if one was said.
But maybe I'm reading between the lines. So let's look at some actual quotes. Here is another article talking about the name process released during the draft. There are a few quotes about the new name. The first is this from Chipman when asked about the name and look:
"It will be a very, very different look than when the team left back in '96."
More quotes from the article:
The new Winnipeg name had been the source of continued speculation since the sale and relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers sale was announced May 31.
It was even a popular topic of conversation when general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff sat down with prospects ahead of the draft. He ended those meetings by asking the players if they had any questions about the franchise and almost all of them were curious about the name.
"They're all excited about that," said Cheveldayoff. "Their friends are all asking them."
In neither did the owners express excitement about the team name. One tried to immediately distance himself from it by saying the team will be very different. New, new, new. The other talked about others excitement, but not his own, regarding the Jets name.
But that article has plenty of positive quotes about the name. From fans and players. Chris Mason likes it. Byguflien likes it. A few fans were quoted as liking it (with video confirmation of thousands yelling their approval). But who isn't quoted as liking the name? The people who decided the name. The owners.
Of course, all of that investigating was not necessary since the owners are now outright saying they didn't want to go with the name. It's just sorta interesting.
It shows me a few things. First, they are listening to their fans. The fans wanted the name Jets, so the team went with the name Jets. Even though the owners didn't want to.
They made another good decision in NOT listening to the fans after announcing the decision was made to go with Jets regarding the logo and jerseys. "Contributions to any type of contest aren’t going to be considered because we’re long past that stage. To take in a new concept or logo now would mean the jerseys would not be ready for the beginning of the season," says Jets director of corporate communications Scott Brown shortly following the announcement.
They needed to focus to get things done and release the look before the season. And apparently, it was an extremely rushed job considering the normal work that goes into it.
“A new jersey concept normally takes 18 months,” said Cheveldayoff. “For us, as you know, this process was condensed in six weeks.”
True North gets more credit in my book because they never appeared to change stories. I tried to find them saying "We all love the name Jets and are happy to bring it back to Winnipeg!". But that quote never appeared. They were consistant. Honest. They don't have to go back and clarify any earlier statements because there were no earlier statements. It really is incredible to think that this team has an ownership group that won't, oh I don't know, lie to them.
I've said it before, Screw you Atlanta Spirit Group. You lied to us. But in something that you might expect an ownership group to lie about (love of the new team nickname in its official announcement), True North didn't do that.
Thank you, True North. For your honesty and listening to fans when you felt like you needed to and buckling down to get stuff done when that was necessary, I salute you.
Oops.
How inappropriate of me to give you an American salute. It's better than the salute I gave to the ASG courtsey of Avril Lavinge...
But still. You did some good True North. Maybe I should give you a Canadian salute.
Still good.
Changing gears now, this is the video of the jersey unveiling. I've already gone over the jerseys, and even gave some details on my thoughts.
I'm showing the video for a few reasons. First, it's cool to see the players coming out from that plane. Nifty!
Second, the music and horn. I really like that sound. I hope and hope and hope that is the goal celebration song the Jets play after scoring. And the horn? Perfect. I don't know what the Moose used at the MTS Centre, but the horn for the Jets just absolutely has to be an airraid siren. Without question.
There are a number of horn types used in the NHL today. There's a fog horn, like the Ducks, or a train type horn, like the Thrashers had. The air raid siren is used occassionally (like in Buffalo), as is the police type siren, like Washington. So its not like they would be breaking new ground here or anything, but it just has to be an air raid siren!
On another note, this is audio of a conference call with Rick Rypien (one of many players who died this off-season) on signing with the Jets.
In case the video isn't working, he keeps saying that he is happy to be a part of the team because of how the team and ownership has been so loyal to him. He is a little monotone, but a lot of players are that way in interviews. He does seem to be grateful to be a part of the organization. It is still shocking that he's no longer with us.
I recently read an article (that I can't find again, sorry) that still lists his death as "sudden, but not unexpected". This is so odd. Especially since another player who died this off season (Belak) was found in Toronto dead of suicide. And the police said what happened. The same police that won't say what happened to Rick. So it's not because Rick may have committed suicide, the popular theory. Something else could be going on, but that's pure speculation.
Finally, I wanted to point out that I'm pretty damn good. Most of you know this, but I wanted to stress it with some facts. Take a look at this. It's a blog post I made on July 17. In it, I talk about many things but also give my predictions as to the date of the release of the logos and the jerseys. I predicted the logos on August 11 and the jerseys on September 2.
Okay, so I was off about the logos by two weeks. Maybe three. The logos came out on July 23. But I was only five days off with the jerseys! I said the 2nd, and they came out on the 7th! That's pretty good.
Actually, it was just dumb luck. On one subject. So, I'm not all that good.
Sadness. I need something to cheer me up...
God Bless Canada...
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