A Great Team (Once) That No One Watched (Ever): The Story of the Tampa Bay Mutiny

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For our second post I decided to focus on a more recent team-no-more, as well as one from the place I’ve called home for the last four years, Tampa Bay. Enjoy the tale of the Tampa Bay Mutiny, a team that begs the question: If a team is really good but no one is around to see it, how long will it be until said team folds?

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-Josh (@jkoebert)

Despite being the second most-played youth sport in America (behind only basketball), soccer has had a difficult time capturing the nation’s imagination on a professional level. Outside of the meteoric rise and fall of the NASL in the late 70s thanks to teams like the legendary New York Cosmos and all-time great players like Pele, Johan Cruyff, and Franz Beckenbauer, there had been nothing even resembling a successful professional soccer league in the United States before the formation of Major League Soccer in 1996.

Continue reading “A Great Team (Once) That No One Watched (Ever): The Story of the Tampa Bay Mutiny”

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How The Milwaukee Badgers Helped Chicago Steal The NFL’s Most Controversial Championship And Launched The League’s Longest Curse

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Author’s Note: It is only appropriate that the first article on this site is about the team that inspired it in the first place. While in the throes of a Wikipedia wormhole I stumbled upon a collection of Defunct NFL Franchises and was pleasantly surprised to see the words “Milwaukee Badgers” on the list. A love of history and sports led, naturally, to further exploration of this team I never knew existed even though I grew up in their home city. What I found was at turns fascinating and ridiculous, which is right in line with many of the most famous franchises and fables from this era of the NFL. The idea of synthesizing the various sources and stories about the Badgers into one easily-digestible narrative was born. From there it branched out to the site you’re reading now, where teams young and old, from all sports, that were taken from this world too soon can get some posthumous time in the spotlight.

I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much I enjoy putting them together!  

-Josh (@jkoebert

The entity that we now know as the National Football League was born in the showroom of a Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio in August of 1920. For reference, this is a 1920 Hupmobile previously on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Continue reading “How The Milwaukee Badgers Helped Chicago Steal The NFL’s Most Controversial Championship And Launched The League’s Longest Curse”