🎖️ College Football’s Favorite Rivarly Just Got More Complicated

I was wrong. The referees did, in fact, play a part in the Packers-Lions game, but only so they could hand the Lions a win on a silver platter.

Am I still bitter? Maybe, but regular season wins don’t matter — just gotta get to the dance.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: College Football’s Favorite Rivarly Just Got More Complicated

📉 Biggest Loser: Why the Washington Redskins Might Make a Comeback

🏆 Winner’s Circle: The $5,000 Hiking Pants That Walk for You (Seriously)

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🗞 The Big Story

Army-Navy was already one of the most unique rivalries in all of college sports, but this year, it got even more interesting, and not for the reason you might think.

Background: Since 2009, the annual game between the two academies has been played during the second week of December, a weekend after FBS conference championship games, which has helped the Army-Navy game maintain an average of over 7 million viewers per year on CBS while giving each academy an annual seven-figure paycheck.

Part of that payout comes from sources like ticket sales and sponsorships, which are split evenly, but where things get really interesting are with the TV deals that exist around the academies.

TV Deals: CBS has had the rights to the Army-Navy game since 1996 and has signed several extensions since that time, giving them media rights through 2038.

Army also has its own deal with CBS through 2028, which it signed in 2021 when it was still an FBS independent.

But after Army joined the American Athletic Conference this year as a football-only member, this whole deal got a bit more complicated.

That’s because the AAC already had a 12-year deal with ESPN, which means Army Football is technically part of three different media deals:

• Home games on CBS through 2028

• Away games on ESPN through 2032

• An annual matchup with Navy on CBS through 2038

No Contest: But maybe the most interesting wrinkle of this Army-Navy rivalry is that the game technically doesn’t even count in the broader FBS landscape.

That’s because after Army joined Navy in the AAC, the conference agreed that their game wouldn’t count as a league contest since it would be played after the regular season technically ended.

This also means that for the future 12-team College Football Playoff selection process, the game doesn’t affect either team’s chance of getting in or getting left out.

📉 Biggest Loser

This Washington Commanders situation is weird. Let’s break it down.

Since being sold in 2023, the team’s new ownership has repeatedly stated that they’d never bring back their old logo, but now Front Office Sports is reporting that the team is planning on selling t-shirts with it this month. 

Which could completely backfire, but not for the reasons you might think.

The Old Logo is Back? According to FOS, the Commanders plan to sell alumni shirts this month that will highlight the careers of the franchise’s greatest players and feature the team’s controversial former logo.

However, in that same report, a team spokesperson said that the team has no interest in bringing back the old logo permanently.

So why are people upset?

The Real Debate: Well, it turns out that the original Redskins logo was based on Blackfeet Chief John Two Guns White Calf at the request of a Blackfeet tribal council member in 1971.

This is the same person whose likeness was probably also used for the Indian Head Nickel in the early 1900s, and just like that nickel, neither White Calf nor anyone in his family ever gave permission to use his likeness for the iconography.

Now, the interesting part of this whole debate is that it isn’t over whether or not the team should be using a Native American chief as its logo.

In fact, White Calf’s great-nephew says that “if they want to restore the logo, it’s fine with the family.” Instead, their issue is with who owns the copyright to White Calf’s likeness.

However, according to the family, there hasn’t been any “meaningful contact” between them and the team for a decade.

And now, with new ownership, it’s unclear if the team has any incentive to reach out to the family and cut them in on merchandise that might feature White Calf’s likeness going forward, but, in my opinion, it’s the least they could do.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

These new $5,000 pants might actually be an incredible deal, and not just because they help you instantly lose 30 pounds.

Background: Recently, outerwear company Arc’teryx partnered with Skip, a company spun off from Google X, to create what they’re calling their MO/GO pants (short for Mountain Goat).

That’s because the purpose of these pants is to help boost the leg strength of a hiker going uphill while also absorbing the impact of steps coming back down.

This is done via a seven-pound electric motor powered by a three-hour rechargeable battery.

The module attaches to the hiker using carbon fiber braces on each leg and must be worn with Arc’teryx Gamma hiking pants.

What do the Pants Do? The company says to think of MO/GO pants like an e-bike, but for walking. They claim that they can make the wearer feel up to 30 pounds lighter by providing assistance that varies in real time based on the person’s leg movements or with the press of a button.

Naturally, technology like this isn’t cheap, and even after paying the full retail price of $5,000, the pants still won’t ship until next year.

You can, however, rent a pair of these pants for the day for just $80 at select trails in the US and Canada.

And considering that the next closest product to this costs 8x as much, it’s actually a pretty incredible deal.

⏱ In Other News

• The New York Jets are finally #1 in something.

• Why no one wants to host the Olympics.

• Juan Soto’s contract isn’t as big as you might think.

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👋 Happy Friday!

My favorite comment of the week came from someone on TikTok who asked if I was on the Packers payroll.

I’m not, but for the right price (hint: it’s not very high), I’m open to a discussion because this should have been me.