ESPN.com's Adam Schefter cited a source as saying that the Raiders will hire Packers Dir of Football Operations Reggie McKenzie “as their next general manager.” The two sides are “still ironing the details of McKenzie's role and his powers within the organization.” McKenzie was a Raiders LB from ‘85-88 (ESPN.com, 1/5). He cannot formally accept any job until the Packers have been eliminated from the postseason (THE DAILY).
MEETING OF THE MINDS: In Tampa Bay, Michael Van Sickler reports St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster and Rays Owner Stuart Sternberg “will meet Jan. 17, breaking several months of silence between the two people with the most control over the club's future at Tropicana Field.” The pair will meet in St. Petersburg. The last time Sternberg and Foster met “was May, when the two spoke for about an hour after a baseball game.” Their last “formal meeting was in the summer of 2010.” Foster contends that the “current location is viable and that if the Rays try to negotiate for a new home outside Pinellas County it would violate the team's contract with the city” (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 1/6).
COMING UP TO BAT: The Mets in a statement Thursday said that they “had hired CRG Partners, a firm known as a turnaround specialist and bankruptcy consultant, to provide ‘services in connection with financial reporting and budgeting processes.’” In N.Y., Richard Sandomir notes during the ‘10 bankruptcy of the Rangers, William Snyder, a “managing partner of CRG, was the team’s court-appointed chief restructuring officer.” The Mets’ statement “offered no details about their need for CRG’s expertise” (N.Y. TIMES, 1/6).
WHAT'S IN A NAME? In DC, Nathan Fenno noted a “years-long effort to cancel six Washington Redskins‘ federal trademarks is scheduled for trial next month before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.” The petition by “five Native Americans, Blackhorse vs. Pro-Football, Inc., asserts the team’s name and logo are offensive.” Filed in ‘06, it is “identical to an earlier case, Harjo vs. Pro-Football, Inc.” The trial is “scheduled to start in late February, ruled on by a panel of three administrative trademark judges.” Each side has “30 days to present testimony, followed by a 15-day rebuttal period for the petitioners” (WASHINGTON TIMES, 1/5).
