This Is What A $60 Million High School Football Stadium Looks Like [High School Football]

Aug 8, 2012 3:25 PM  

You're looking at a recent photo of Eagle Stadium, in Allen, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas. The stadium, three years in the works, will seat 18,000 when it opens later this month. It's got two luxury suites, a pro-quality press box, a 3,400-square-foot HD video scoreboard—and tickets will be just $10 a game for the all-bleacher seating. This is Texas football.

According to Fox Sports Southwest, Eagle Stadium is only the fifth-largest high school field in the state, though that includes an MLS arena, two 1930s WPA projects, and Memorial Stadium in Mesquite, which is shared by five schools. So actual single-purpose prep stadiums don't get any bigger or nicer than this one.

The old 14,000-seater apparently wasn't big enough anymore, which is mind-boggling to someone whose 3,000-student high school didn't even have a home field. Allen faced some criticism as the stadium was built in the midst of shrinking funding and an education budget shortfall. But the cash came straight from residents, in the form of a 2009 bond measure that passed with 63 percent—and also included funding for a performing arts center.

Fox Sports and the Huffington Post have a bunch more photos. It looks like a gorgeous place to watch boys' lives peak before they're old enough to vote.

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The Replacement Ref Who Worked The Hall Of Fame Game May Have Been Dismissed From The Lingerie Football League [Nfl]

We at Deadspin cover a lot of ramshackle football leagues—the Arena, Indoor, and United States leagues come to mind—but none of them seems as ramshackle as the Lingerie Football League. This outfit has 12 teams playing seven-on-seven in small venues throughout this great land.* A handful of the games air on MTV2. The league sends us a lot of silly press releases (and they're silly even by press-release standards). So we're pretty certain the quality of football played there is not great.

*Correction: The LFL had all that. No longer. They're on hiatus in the U.S. until 2013, but they're still playing games in Canada and on a world tour.

What significance does this carry for NFL fans? We'll let Florio explain:

Regarding Craig Ochoa, for example, who served as the referee during the Hall of Fame game, Mike Pereira says that the league has trumped up Ochoa's experience level.

"They've tried to say that Craig Ochoa . . . was a BCS official, that he worked in the Big Ten. He didn't work in the Big Ten. He's not been a major college official. I don't think the NFL is going to say that he actually got released midway through the last Lingerie Football League season as a referee. I don't think the league is going to put that out. The league wants as little out as possible. They don't want people talking about it. They don't want me talking about it."

And Ochoa (who isn't the man pictured above) was the replacement ref the NFL chose for its big public splash on Sunday night. The ace. The "don't worry, everything will be all right" guy. As we wrote yesterday, they had a miserable outing. That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in the other 15 crews the NFL plans to call on. And we're certainly not excited about gambling in games reffed by these officials.

As for the veracity of Pereira's claim, we've put in a request to the Lingerie Football League and haven't yet heard back. We too wonder what could get one dismissed from that league. Maybe he asked if he too could work in his underwear?

Pereira says NFL is embellishing the credentials of replacement officials [PFT]

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Penn State Is Making Some Changes To Its Football Uniforms [Penn State Scandal]

Aug 7, 2012 4:30 PM  

Penn State kept its football uniforms remarkably plain over the years (except for the right price), but those famous blue and white duds are getting a slight makeover this fall, the school announced today. Individual players' names will now appear on the backs of the jerseys, and there will also be a blue ribbon to show support for victims of child abuse:

Coach [Bill] O'Brien says after speaking with some members of the team, they made the decision together to add names to the uniforms. Players indicated the names on their jerseys also mean they will hold each other accountable to uphold the traditions of Penn State football, both on and off the field.

"We want our fans to know and recognize these young men," O'Brien said. "They have stuck together during tough times, and I commend them for the leadership they have shown."

Of course, displaying the names on the back also makes it easier to keep track of which players elected not to transfer as a result of the NCAA sanctions.

Penn State Announces Changes to 2012 Football Uniform [PSU]

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