As the Jacksonville Jaguars experience financial turmoil, the looming question is when the National Football League (NFL) franchise pulls up stakes to Los Angeles. Duh... the City of Angels boasts the second-largest media market in the country.
Here's the 77,000 question: What will be the name of the next NFL west-coast team? This may seem like a frivolous question until one realizes that the NFL boasts no team with a canine mascot.
Consider that the NFL has five organizations with avian orientations (Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, Phoenix Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks), four teams with cat names (Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions and hanging-by-a-thread Jacksonville Jaguars) and two clubs honoring horses (Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts). Nothing canine oriented. The NFL would rather identify with fish (Miami Dolphins), nautical bandits (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and marauders (Oakland Raiders).
The future Los Angeles club ought to consider a canine image -- drawing, perhaps from the area's regional milieu. The Beverly Hills Purse Dogs? Westwood Wild Dogs? Orange County otter hounds?
Or how about venturing down memory lane, and honoring a franchise with pigskin roots in the City of Angels? Formed in 1936, the Los Angeles Bulldogs aspired to join the National Football League (NFL), which instead opted for the Cleveland Rams. (How's that for irony?) In 1937, the rejected Bulldogs went undefeated with a 16-0 season -- including going 8-0 in the American Football League (AFL). Spurted again by the NFL, Los Angeles, the Bulldogs toiled in the American Professional Football League (nee AFL), Pacific Coast Professional Football League (PCPFL) during the late 1930s and 1940s. The Bulldogs routed the likes of the Columbus Bullies, Dayton Bombers and St. Louis Gunners.
Unlike the homogeneous NFL, the PCPFL teams yielded teams with African-American athletes. In 1941, the Bulldogs' backfield included a former University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) running back named Jackie Robinson, who left the team the following year when he was drafted by the Army the following year in the midst of World War II. The demise of the PCPFL spelled the end of the Bulldogs.
A proud piece of Los Angeles history needs to be restored. The NFL needs a team with a canine persona: the Los Angeles Bulldogs. You can talk to me.
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