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My view Rooting for Lemurs, Condors, Crickets
By Scott French, Soccer America I love the WUSA. But I hate the nicknames -- all except one. Boston Breakers -- rolls easily off the tongue, nice alliteration, and it's plural! (Means they're a "they," not an "it" - big deal for us writers and editors.) The other seven WUSA nicknames? They suck. If the BigSoccer.com postings are a true reflection, everyone outside the WUSA agrees. MLS went out of its way six years ago to concoct some of the worst names in American sports history (Mutiny? Clash? Burn?), but the WUSA trumped its counterparts with Charge, Courage, Beat, Freedom and Power. (Love to be the Philadelphia Inquirer hedline writer when Ivan Lendl and former Phillies infielder Dave Cash become prospective investors: "Charge: Czech or Cash?") My solution: Let's ignore these stupid names and come up with our own. Plurals are a must, animals are preferred. Easier to love a cuddly wolverine than some oblique concept or ideal, you know. I don't mind the "Rays" in the Bay Area club's name. The "Cyber" is stupid, but StingRays -- that's good. Another wonderful California nickname would be Condors, the majestic, endangered bird. We'll let San Diego shed Spirit for that. Courage might be the WUSA's worst nickname -- no, wait, that would be Charge. I like Lemurs for Carolina. Fierce, sleek, beautiful. Why they didn't call Philadelphia the Freedom eludes me. Copyright law? No matter, Freedom must go: Washington Interns? Won't work. How 'bout Monuments? Or Wildcats? And let's call Philadelphia the Fillies -- sorry, can't resist. We could turn the Atlanta Beat, whose logo contains a musical note, into an homage to John, Paul, George and Ringo. Maybe spell it Beetles (VW sponsorship?). Or go to the source and just call them the Crickets. New York's easy. Drop Power for Queens. Or, for geographical correctness, Long Island Iced Teas. Those are the teams I'll be following. You can come up with your own names. No doubt they'll be superior to the real thing. Scott French is a senior editor at Soccer America magazine.
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