Appropriately lost amid this wonderfully crowded sports season, which included no less than a Sports Equinox this past Monday, the UFL—you know, America’s latest college-try at spring football—made waves recently by revealing not just one destined-to-last-three-seasons-at-most franchise but two. (Editorial note: “Waves” is used here in the nickname news sense; not to be confused with actual headline-worthy happenings; e.g., the Brewers ripping through the World Series like a shotgunned can of Miller Lite or the Valkyries and Dream duking it out for layup supremacy…and wondering where they’ll play next.)

Introduced first to the world were the Rhode Island Breakers (DOB: 10.18.26), and a week later came the Colorado Stampede (10.25.26). Both teams, on their newborn faces, sport decent-enough identities (Rhode Island as the rocky-shored Ocean State with the famed Breakers mansion in Newport; Colorado as the outdoor playground of the West where the Great Plains collides with the Rockies), but when you push past their recycled team rosters (the Breakers with the Birmingham Stallions and the Stampede with the Dallas Renegades) and fresh-out-of-the-box logos, those nicknames lose whatever luster they hoped to have, especially as one name has been used previously by a trinity of failed spring football teams (R.I.P., Breakers–Breakers–Breakers, USFL 1983–85) and the other appears as a half-baked knock-off of a longtime CFL team (Calgary Stampeders) mixed with Neon Deion’s Buffaloes upstate at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Our verdict? Stampede over Breakers in a squeaker-stinker, 5 Buffalo Sauce Bottles (one for every wild bison in Colorado today) to 4 Twice-Baked Potatoes (one for every iteration of spring football Breakers—Boston, Portland, New Orleans, and now Rhode Island).

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How lovely is Paris this time of year—even through clouds of Molotov cocktail smoke.

Quelle ambiance!

You see, here at Man Mulligan, where subordinates are battle-tested and superiors are war-torn, widespread rioting only adds to the tourist experience.

Quelle ambulances!

So, how did the civil unrest across France influence our nickname agenda? Besides pepper spray-inflamed eyes and the occasional clubbed leg, hardly at all.

Our crackpot crew kicked our way through the city’s stadiums, slid the red clay of Roland-Garros, and even rode bikes down the Champs-Élysées. Then, we took stock of everything non-sporting Paris has to offer (our American-aligned brains are still hurting) and used what we learned (see the Notebook page below) to whip up a nickname even those Louvre thieves could be proud of.

In the end, the spandex-clad Man Mulligan cycling club didn’t bless the city with Paris Pedalers or Paris Protestors as its team name (though, they do have tempting rings to them). Instead, inspiration struck from our quieter moments throughout the city, both indoors and out.

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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Cheers from London Town!

Full of beans and hankering for bangers and mash, Man Mulligan’s competitive eating team arrived at Euston station, with fresh-out-of-the-nickname-oven Matchsticks in hand, ready to crack on and devour everything the capital city had to offer.

And, boy, did London deliver. And deliver. And deliver some more.

London delivered so much, in fact, that we wobble out of the country today, full up and two stones—plus, one sticky nickname—for the better.

So, how the bloody hell did our sport-soaking, fact-finding, nickname-contriving mission play out?

See for yourself below!

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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The 122^nd edition of the Fall Classic starts tonight in Milwaukee, when the Tampa Bay Rays (née Devil Rays) take their swings against off-speed wunderkind (and shoulda-been-a-Royal) Jacob Misiorowski and the Milwaukee Brewers (née Pilots, of Seattle) in a battle to hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy for the very first time.

So, who will prevail in this small-market showdown? Glad you asked, because to Man Mulligan’s nickname hacks, who may or may not include an individual who may or may not have replaced the water of a university’s lobby aquarium with PBR to “bring the party to the tank”, as it were, certain truths are self-evident, including any encounter between tropical sea life and Milwaukee’s best (or worst) ending the same way: with mass marine casualties.

As it was back in college, so it shall be in this World Series: Milwaukee’s Brewers over Tampa Bay’s Rays, 9 Blue Ribbons to 8 Cigar Bands.

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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To mark the start of the NBA’s 81^st season, the Man Mulligan travel train has pulled into Grand Central for tonight’s matchup between the new-look, old-LeBron Philadelphia 76ers and the world-champion, won’t-let-anyone-forget-it New York Knickerbockers in what promises to be just the first exchange in a seasons-long battle for Eastern Conference supremacy.

While the Sixers and Knicks have been going at it for decades, Philadelphians and New Yorkers have been feuding even longer, ever since the nation’s earliest colonial days, in fact, and their history-rich team names reflect those roots, specifically Philadelphia’s as the country’s birthplace and New York’s as an early trading post and then colony of the Netherlands.

So, how do those nicknames stack up today, hundreds of years post-provenance, and, most importantly, which team earns the coveted Man Mulligan nod for tonight’s banner-dropping game? Both score high on our scale, but this tip-in goes to the Knicks, 9 Old Dutch Cleansers to 8 Quaker Oats Cans.

Note: This post was originally posted, but not distributed, on Oct. 20, 2026.

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Greetings from the North of England, mates!

For the past three days, Man Mulligan’s advanced scouts have been immersed in all things Manchester, the first stop in our six-week, twelve-city tour of the Old World, and we have rain on the brain and buckets to share.

Our round-the-clock, turn-the-city-inside-out process went as follows, give or take a dust-up we may have unintentionally instigated between United and City fans:

1. dive head-first into what we know best—sports, of course—and catalogue, in throwback newspaper form, everything athletic the city has to offer (check), from its top-flight teams and signature stadiums to its beloved legends and rowdiest rivalries (see our sports page below);

2. get the city’s nickname lay of the land by flippantly but faithfully scoring a slice of local team names (spoiler: Manchester doesn’t disappoint), then pin the prize-worthy results to our trusted, never-leave-home-without-it cork board (double-check, also below);

3. ditch the ticket stubs and game-worn jerseys for local library cards and forged credentials to the city archives and dig into the area’s non-sporting history and unearth the essence of greater Manchester and its people (a.k.a., the secret sauce in great team names) through eight core influences, covering everything from the natural landscape to those man-made (check, check, and check);

4. bang our research-filled heads against the hardest walls in town (such lovely bricks here) until a team identity spills out of our ears and splatters onto the page in brand brief form (double-double-check);

5. get out of Dodge before we’re thrown out—or, as it happens, thrown onto a direct train to London as it rolls out of Dodge (check, ticket check).

And that brings us to the present, on the outskirts of Wilmslow, nursing our wounds and milking a pint, as we barrel toward one of the world’s great cities and what promises to be a dizzying few days.

This Saturday, we’ll send our digital dispatch from London, complete with a Man Mulligan-branded team identity.

Will it match Manchester’s or rain on its fiery parade?

Stay tuned!

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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To mark the start of the NBA’s 81^st season, the Man Mulligan travel train has pulled into Grand Central for tonight’s matchup between the new-look, old-LeBron Philadelphia 76ers and the world-champion, won’t-let-anyone-forget-it New York Knickerbockers in what promises to be just the first exchange in a seasons-long battle for Eastern Conference supremacy.

While the Sixers and Knicks have been going at it for decades, Philadelphians and New Yorkers have been feuding even longer, ever since the nation’s earliest colonial days, in fact, and their history-rich team names reflect those roots, specifically Philadelphia’s as the country’s birthplace and New York’s as an early trading post and then colony of the Netherlands.

So, how do those nicknames stack up today, hundreds of years post-provenance, and, most importantly, which team earns the coveted Man Mulligan nod for tonight’s banner-dropping game? Both score high on our scale, but this tip-in goes to the Knicks, 9 Old Dutch Cleansers to 8 Quaker Oats Cans.

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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SCOPE DOPE is Man Mulligan’s radar watch for the expansion, relocation, rebranding, naming, stadium, and sports-business developments that could change the identity map of sports in the United States and beyond.

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