The Wishbook wasn’t simply my source for toys and sports apparel, but it was also where I found what I needed for the interior design of my bedroom.

The NFL section had bedsheets, pillow cases, and curtains to match. Although, being that my heart hadn’t settled in a stable environment as of yet over the last four years, I didn’t pick a bedroom theme geared to one franchise. I was technically a free agent, so I picked them all.

I had curtains that displayed the helmet logo of every NFL team with the bed amenities to match. It was a beautiful collage of every logo, and separated by rectangular frames in all different sizes. I loved just gazing at it in awe, and admiring each city’s design and team colors before I fell asleep every night, and it was the first thing I looked at when I woke up as the sun shown through them every morning bring each team to life.

My two favorite logos were the Washington Redskins logo and the Buffalo Bills logo. The profile of the distinguished Native American staring with a subtly defiant stare in the direction of their opponents seemed like such a powerful American image to me. Along with it being the symbol of the team representing our nations capital made it seem all the more appropriate and honorable.

The Buffalo Bills had changed their helmets from white to red during that season in Louisiana, but the curtains I owned were obviously printed before that change was made, so that charging powerful animal was on the original white background. I thought the move to make the helmets red made that logo even more dominant.

I had read somewhere that the change was made due to so many division opponents in the old AFC East having logos with white helmets. Other than the Jets, every one of the other four division teams had white helmets, and the theory was that quarterbacks would have a better chance at limiting interceptions, from opposing defenses with slants over the middle, if their targets could stand out more. I’m not sure if it helped initially, but they would end up dominating the division within ten years and going to four Super Bowls, so it certainly didn’t hurt matters.

I can’t stand that the Bills regressed by losing the red and went back to the original whites. That Marv Levy Era logo and red helmet was the cream of the crop as far as I was concerned. Atleast they didn’t go back to this one.

I mean, really? Does that fire you up? It looks half asleep, and is about to become a victim of a cow tipping incident. Plus, it was way too small on the helmet. At least make it a decent size, for Christ’s sake.

Honestly, I don’t know who should be more ashamed of themselves: The graphic designer, who pitched that logo, or the marketing manager, who gave it the stamp of approval. The fact that all you would need is literally a stamp to replicate the lack of color in this logo is an utter disgrace. Sorry, as a former Graphic Design major in college I probably take this too seriously, but I just don’t understand how some team designs ever see the light of day.

Look at that. How much of an improvement is that? It’s like McGregor coming in and moping the floor with Aldo. I hope they held a parade for the person responsible for this upgrade. It’s arguably the best logo in the league, but not with the white. Bring back the red, Buffalo. You had it right. I know we live in a time where every team across all sports has to whore out there team colors and logos for nothing more than the almighty marketing dollar(I’m looking at you Oregon), but try to have some semblance of dignity, don’t mess with a good thing, and stick with a single team identity. Go back to the red, and I guarantee a playoff berth next year. Trust me.

I digress. Bottomline, I’ve spent countless days and nights admiring all the NFL franchises being that I had literally surrounded myself with all of them where I laid my head every night as a kid.

I got that bedroom set in 1984, and I had those curtains for the next twenty years. No lie. Once you leave the home you grow up in to go to college or start a job out of high school most parents will leave your room just as the day you left it, as a kind of childhood shrine.

But eventually those football pennants, posters, and newspaper clipping of iconic sports moments get taken down one day. The closets get cleaned out, boxed up, and placed in the basement, garage, attic, or storage. And what you are left with the next time you come home for the holidays(or whatever the reason maybe) is your room, but in a renewed state, like a shaken Etch A Sketch. You enter a “guest room”. Of course, it’s still your room, but it’s as if you are moving into a familiar framework void of all the little personal touches that defined it as yours.

Although, I fought my mother tooth to nail on those curtains. She could wipe every trace of my existence and any association I ever had with that room, but the NFL curtains would never be touched. It drove her crazy, but when I eventually moved out to LA, and wasn’t living within a three hour radius at the most, she knew she finally had found her window of opportunity. Twenty years those NFL curtains made it, but only one of those years was in Mandeville, Louisiana. The other nineteen years of there reign hung in our next and final home.

CHIEFS +3.5(-115) @ BRONCOS -3.5(-105)

OVER/UNDER: 38.5

FANTASY STARTERS:

NONE

FANTASY OPPONENTS:

D: CHIEFS @ DEN

EMOTIONAL RED FLAG ALERT: 10

OPEN CLASSIFICATION:

PEOPLES DOG CROSS(PDC)

The Top General has spoken, students. Plus, it’s her birthday this week, so there was no way I was winning this argument.

PICK: CHIEFS +155 & OVER 38.5

FANTASY FACTOR:

NONE

JUMP SHIP AUDIBLE:

You heard the birthday girl, K.C. She brought me a Royals championship last year, and a Spurs title in 2015. It’s the least I could do. Kansas City Moneyline, or bust, with The House Total Points wherever it lands. LET’S GO!!

PACKERS +3.5 @ EAGLES -3.5

OVER/UNDER: 47.5

FANTASY STARTERS:

NONE

FANTASY OPPONENTS:

NONE

EMOTIONAL RED FLAG ALERT: 6

OPEN CLASSIFICATION:

PEOPLES FAVORITE HOUSE CROSS (PFHC)

PICK: EAGLES -4 & UNDER 47.5

FANTASY FACTOR:

NONE

JUMP SHIP AUDIBLE:

I’d love to see this end up as a HOUSE FAVORITE SPECIAL. Let’s make it happen, people. It’s House Total Points, or bust. If the public wins the SNF Side, then we’re going with a Primetime Domino Effect on this MNF Side action, but it’s Philly Moneyline, or bust.

Goodnight, and good luck.