NFL OWNERS: RELINQUISH THE TEAMS!!

The NFL needs to wrok out (and I do mean wrok out) an arrangement whereby:

#1 the owner owns the team, but
#2 the owner does not own the name.

The town owns the name. The town, the city, the greater metropolitan area whose fans have sustained and supported that team. They own the name. Or So Should It Be.

The league has already taken steps in this direction, with the Texans (née Oilers) and Ravens (née Browns). But it should be more than just a case of case-by-case. This should be a universal condition and requirement for ownership of any NFL team.

The owner would still be free to sell the team. But if the team should move to another market, all of the team indicia (colors, mascot, name, logo) as well as all team history and records, et cetera, remain behind. Retired, perhaps, or perhaps just dormant - waiting to be revived, if the town in question can lure a new franchise to pick up the mantle that was dropped.

The team that moves takes its current team roster, coaching staff, etc to the new market and starts absolutely fresh with NO HISTORY carried over. They would have to come up with a new name, new logo, new mascot, new uniform scheme. But they would have a window of time in which to do so! Because as part of the rules and restrictions, any team that moves to a new market has to spend their first 3 seasons in the new market going by one of the following "standby" team schemes held in reserve for teams that shift venues:

* THE CHICKENS (Example: THE LOUISVILLE CHICKENS). Team Colors: Yellow, primarily, with pink and white accents.

* THE PIGS (Example: THE LOS ANGELES PIGS). Team Colors: Pink, primarily, with blue and black accents.

* THE SHEEP (Example: THE ALBUQUERQUE SHEEP). Team Colors: Taupe, primarily, with beige and off-white accents.

If we see a whole bunch of teams moving markets, we can come up with more team schemes from Ol' MacDonald, to cover the new teams during their "hazing period" at their new location. But I don't think the need will arise.