It should have been a great week for the UFL.  Certainly that is what the league was hoping for.  But, in the week where they officially released the names and uniforms of their teams for the “Premiere” season things did not go as well as they had hoped.

The biggest challenge was that the team names Florida Tuskers, Las Vegas Locomotives, New York Sentinels and California Redwoods, did not resonate with fans or the media. 

Now, to be clear, I don’t mind the team names, I think they are okay.  However I am only one person in the grand scheme of things.  Also, keep in mind that I said they were okay… certainly, the names did not WOW me.

However, one can just do a Google search and find plenty of recent media stories that are negative or poking fun at what they perceive are lackluster names.  In addition, fan’s tweets and blogs abound that are expressing outright dissatisfaction with the names. 

The bottom line is that the team names did not wow anyone.  The sad fact is that the names were supposed to generate much needed excitement, momentum and support for the league.

The next problem was the uniforms.  Since the league opted for a unified look and feel for its premiere season uniforms, there was not a lot of excitement generated in the uniforms.  In fact, by the time the league got to the west coast to unveil the Florida Tuskers and the New York Sentinels uniforms everyone already knew what they would look like.  The only guess was the uniform color.  Yawn!  Another missed opportunity to generate excitement.

Even the press conferences were lackluster.  The photos that were released were amateur at best.  Even the title cards on the easels looked like they were done with Microsoft Word “word art”.  Why not hire a graphic artist to do a professional job to the title cards?  Why not hire a professional photographer to take properly lit and framed photos of the press conferences?

The last and biggest let-down of last week was the signing of Michael Vick to the NFL’s Eagles.  This was sort of out of the UFL’s hands, and you know that they did the best they could to sign Vick.  However the UFL was not Vick’s first choice and he held out for a chance to get back to play big league ball.

The signing of Michael Vick was supposed to be the UFL’s big news splash.  Vick was the thing that would really put them on the map.  But it wasn’t to be, and it wasn’t their fault… or was it?  Does anyone else think that Michael Vick’s camp saw what the UFL was doing with what they perceived to be bush-league team names and lackluster uniforms and immediately became fearful that the UFL might be a very bad choice for Vick?  I am sure that it was a factor.

Don’t be fooled by other reports that the UFL has recanted and are now saying “good riddance” and that the UFL didn’t even want Vick.  They really wanted him.  After all, they were offering him 1.6 million for a relatively short season.

The UFL really has to take stock in the past week.  They need to learn from their mistakes or failure will surely come.  Another week like this and investors, who largely base their decisions on perception, will surely be fleeing.

The coming weeks present a giant challenge for the UFL.  All the UFL has to do and look back at other leagues that have come up and failed.  All of those leagues did not get any respect from the sports community, the news media and the fans.  The UFL is no different.  The league is going to have to try lot harder if they want the sports community to take them seriously.