⚖️ Why are the Mavericks and Stars Suing Each Other Over $110?

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I don’t know about the rest of you, but I believe there comes a time in every kid’s life when they realize that 99% of their dad’s jokes come from ’80s and ’90s comedy movies.

I was about 12 when I realized most of my dad’s one-liners came from Chevy Chase movies (maybe I should have realized that sooner, given my name is Ty Webb).

However, this time of year, all I hear are National Lampoon Christmas Vacation quotes on repeat. Sorry, Dad.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: Why are the Mavericks and Stars Suing Each Other Over $110?

📉 Biggest Loser: Why Don’t the Browns Have a Logo on Their Helmet?

🏆 Winner’s Circle: This Bald 57-Year-Old Just Solved Volleyball’s Ponytail Problem

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🗞 The Big Story

What the heck is going on in Dallas right now? Because, according to all the headlines, the Mavericks and the Stars are currently suing each other over $110, however, this feud is actually a lot more complicated than you might think.

Let’s break it down.

American Airlines Center: Since 2001, the Mavs and the Stars have operated Dallas’ city-owned American Airlines Center in an agreement that’s increasingly rare in sports:

Each team is entitled to 50% of the arena's combined annual revenue, estimated at around $300 million, and to split the cost of any upgrades and maintenance.

However, even though this sounds like a great deal for both parties, we learned last year that not everyone is happy with this current arrangement. That’s because last October, the Mavs sent a letter to the Stars stating that they had broken their partnership agreement by basing their offices outside Dallas city limits.

Now, the truth is, the Stars' headquarters and practice facility have been located in Frisco since 2003; however, according to the Mavericks, their agreement allows them to send the Stars just $110 to buy them out of their 50-50 revenue-sharing split.

So what’s actually going on here?

A Long History: Well, thanks to some great reporting from Bret McCormick and Irving Mejia-Hilario, we now know that there has actually been tension between the two teams for years, with some sources claiming that the often cash-strapped Stars have tried to squeeze every penny out of the arena, while others claim that the Mavs have previously withheld money from the Stars for more than a year.

But whatever the case may be, it’s becoming increasingly clear that this lawsuit over who makes money on the current arena isn’t the ultimate goal.

Instead, several sources have indicated that if the Mavericks are able to gain full control of the arena business for the remainder of the lease, which runs through 2031, they would gain significant leverage with the city on a potential new arena down the road.

You can read more about this feud here.

📉 Biggest Loser

Why are the Browns the only team in the NFL without a logo on their helmet?

Well, it’s actually one of the most interesting stories in sports that no one seems to know anything about.

Background: When the Cleveland Browns were founded in 1946, it was actually fairly uncommon for football teams to have any sort of logo on their helmets; however, that quickly changed in the 1950s, once teams like the Rams and the Redskins started getting paid by TV networks to broadcast their games.

In fact, by 1965, the NFL had convinced almost every team in the NFL to add some sort of logo to their helmets so that it would be easier for fans watching at home to tell them apart. Still, even with this pressure from the league, there was one man who refused to change.

Anti-Logo: Now, even though you’re probably aware that the Cleveland Browns were named after their first coach, Paul Brown, what you likely didn’t know is that Brown hated the idea of adding any sort of logo to his team’s helmets, claiming that he didn’t want to look like “automobile racers on the playing field.”

That’s why it wasn’t until after he was fired in 1963 that then-owner Art Modell commissioned an artist to design a new look for the team’s helmets that would both please the league and give the team a new identity that was separate from its first and only-ever coach.

But this is when the story starts to get weird.

Because, in line with the trend at the time, artist David Boss designed a simple interlocking “CB” logo to be painted on the side of the team’s iconic orange helmets.

And after the team won the 1964 NFL Championship in their plain helmets, by training camp of the 1965 season, this “CB” design started popping up in promotional material and merchandise all over Cleveland. But then, when the team took the field for their first game of the year, these newly designed helmets were nowhere to be found.

What Happened: Now, reports of what happened to this logo are conflicting, because while some team officials say that the new helmets were presented to the players and rejected out of superstition, since they had just won the championship in the old helmets, players who were actually on the team at the time have said that they never even saw these new helmets, leaving many fans to believe they never even made it past the brainstorming phase.

Still, regardless of what happened to them, by 1965 the Browns were the only team left in the NFL without a helmet logo. So maybe the league just gave up trying to convince them to add one since their plain lids were now the most unique in football.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

How did this bald 57-year-old solve one of the biggest problems in women’s sports with just $80?

The Problem: This is Jerritt Elliott, a 3x National Champion as the University of Texas’ head volleyball coach, and back in 2013, he noticed a huge problem during his team’s practices:

His players kept stopping to fix their hair.

Now, as a bald guy, Elliott didn’t understand why his players had to keep redoing their ponytails, but understanding that it was a constant problem, he set out to learn everything he could about what was causing it.

According to a great piece by ESPN’s Alyssa Haduck, Elliott went out and bought $80 worth of hair-ties from the most popular brands and started talking with friends and former players about their biggest issues with the current options, and they all basically described the same three things:

1. They broke and slipped too easily

2. They caused headaches

3. They damaged their hair

So, along with his soon-to-be wife and former professional volleyball player, the Elliotts got to work designing their own version of the hair tie, and what they came up with is honestly genius.

Tie It Yourself: Instead of limiting athletes to a one-size-fits-all design, Elliott’s product, called TIY (Tie It Yourself), features a rubber core covered in woven fabric that the wearer can tie. This allows it to fit any hairstyle without slipping or damaging it, while still being twice as stretchy and 13 times as strong as the average hair tie.

In fact, Elliott has even heard of players wearing the same TIY for all four years of their college career.

But that’s not even my favorite part.

Since a volleyball player and coach created the product, it comes in more than 35 different hues to match the specific colors of colleges across the country, which is probably why players from every Final Four team last year could be seen wearing one.

⏱️ In Other News

• Number of injured players on every NFL team

• Michigan found the perfect interim coach

• The highest-paid coaches in the NBA

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

A big congrats to my youngest brother, Bryson Webb, who just finished up his undergraduate degree at Central Michigan University!

Anyone have any food recommendations in Mt. Pleasant, MI?