Fayetteville Marksmen

16

Okay, let's just start by addressing the elephant in the room. The elephant is, of course, a fox, which I know sounds like a spy's response to "The eagle flies at midnight", but in this case the elephant is, indeed, a fox. Specifically, the fox in the logo. Why, if the team is called the "Marksmen", does the logo feature a fox?

Team president Jeff Longo says that it's because a fox is "cagey, wiley, intelligent, shrewd, sometimes ferocious — all things that we want our team on the ice to personify." And I can't argue with that on any level. Foxes are all of these things, and these are things any sports team ought to personify. There's just one problem.

Why didn't you name the team the Foxes?

Team names are, after all, totemic. And foxes make a great totem for a hockey team for the very reasons Longo gave when explaining the logo. And of course "Fayetteville Foxes" is alliterative, which teams often go for when picking a name. I'm not saying that "Marksmen" isn't a good name, because it is a good one (not a great one, but a good one). And I understand that the team might have wanted a military reference. But if you're going to put a fox in your logo, then maybe you should, you know, call yourselves the Foxes.

Final Score: 16 points.
Penalties: Irrelevance, 14 pts; Name-Logo, 2 pts.
Bonuses: None.