Ride On, Kenny

The NFL has apparently ended its helmet deal with Riddell:

The 2013 season will be the last to feature Riddell as the official helmet of the NFL, a league spokesman and the company confirmed Thursday night.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league agreed in 1989 to give Riddell rights to be the official helmet of the NFL in perpetuity after a slew of helmet manufacturers went out of business. But, McCarthy said, the league recently renegotiated the deal to have it end at the conclusion of the 2013 season.

Of course the only thing I can think about is my old buddy Ken Draznik, who wrote the incomparable Left in the Dark:

About 10 years ago THE GNAT, after spotting his name in some Wilco message board, hooked me up with Ken Draznik, the writer of the song, and like a star-struck fan I emailed him. And of course I told him how much I loved his band, what that song meant, about the inordinate number of musical doors those three minutes somehow opened to me, it was the first song I learned how to play blah blah blah. And, incredibly, he wrote me back. First of all, I was shocked to learn that, according to his email address,  he worked for Riddell Sports. I don't know what I thought; I guess I pictured that whoever had written such a (seemingly) famous song spent his time in pubs doing interviews with Kurt Loder and shagging chicks. Or whatever.

Anyway, not only did he email me, but he MAILED me cassette tapes of the Vertebrats catalog, PLUS demos he had been working on. We were email buddies for awhile...then I sent him a Happy Scene ep + a tape of MY demos, and the correspondence "mysteriously" stopped there. Hmm.