What's in your trophy-case??? (Warning: NSFW... trophy-case porn possibly imminent...)

It was just a few years ago that the re-branded, re-invigorated and eminently re-newed franchise Sporting KC brought it's fanbase firmly into the realm of what is generally thought of as "MLS 2.0" and beyond. For many of it's newly aware fanbase, their trifecta of the 2012 USOC, 2013 MLS Cup and 2015 USOC were the first titles that the cities of KC Mo and KC Kansas had enjoyed since the Royals won the World Series in '86. That was a prevailing theme... until it wasn't.

Because much of MLS 1.0's timeline fell into a period in which MLS as a league was mired in a bit of a "minor league" perception, the titles won by many the teams in the period prior to the current decade didn't have a major league feel to them and were generally ignored by local and national media alike. So many were surprised to learn that, not only had SKC actually won the title before,... noone seemed to know where it was...

Much like the famed Jules Rimet trophy, SKC's first league championship had apparently gone on a bit of a hiatis. Media members who scarcely knew that the team had existed the year before were suddenly clamoring for information. New and old fans demanded answers. Lamar Hunt was burned in effigy across the city... okay that didn't happen...

Now a few quick Google searches failed to find the original articles covering this, perhaps there really wasn't all that much speculation. In truth, SKC's new owners had known exactly where the missing trophy was all along but since most fans will never actually see inside their team's trophy cases, this is usually a moot point. What they do see are the banners, or paintings on a wall (as SKC players do after their most recent trophy wins). But that brought me to wonder what actually goes on in an MLS trophy case or cabinet... or room if one needs more space.

The NHL's Stanley cup is perhaps the second most famous singular trophy, ie one that is awarded to different clubs but never remade itself. Ahead of it is the World Cup trophy itself, the current being the successor to the original Jules Rimet Trophy which was awarded for life to the Brazilian national team who had become the first international team to win it on three occasions after which an unknown thief awarded it to him/herself who then subsequently awarded it to an unknown fence who, in turn, awarded it to an unknown buyer who had succeed in winning the trophy by being the best owner of money at that particular time. The accomplishment is likely not said unknown buyer's first, but it is likely that his/her trophy-case includes other titles like *the actual Mona Lisa (having fooled the world into thinking that it had been recovered in 1913), the rocks from the marble quarry that the MichaelAngelo's David was cut from, about 20 Nigerian Benin Bronzes and one of the original four versions of The Scream by Edvard Munch. That man/woman or club of collectors probably has quite a trophy case.

But I don't know because I've never seen it. I've also never seen the trophy case belonging to DC United, LA Galaxy, Seattle Sounders, San Jose Earthquakes, Portland Timbers, TFC or Montreal Impact. But why did I choose these teams in particular as opposed to the many other MLS sides whose trophy cases I have also never seen? It's because these sides have many unique stories and aspects to their trophy cases that call into question the very purpose of having one. What do they mean?

For example, like the World and Stanley Cups, the MLS Supporters Shield and the Voyageurs Cup are both single trophies which are re-dedicated to a new winner each season. In the past MLS teams who have won the former, have requested replicas from the supporters which have been denied. However, all of us who have been fans of the league long enough remember DC United's display of the various trophies won on their website's front page... in fact the images are still on their website, just not on the front page anymore.




So if you count up all of the trophies and reference them with trophies won, all seems in order, right? DC United surely wouldn't misrepresent their own trophy case, right? But if the supporter refuse to create replicas of the Supporter's Shield trophy, then where did all of those Supporters Shield's come from? Perhaps a theory can be devised along the lines of that which puzzled turn of the century physicist who were studying quantum properties. As I have never actually seen the inside of DCU's trophy case, could it then be the equivalent of *Schroedinger's Cat? Is DCU's trophy case an amalgam of a *probability wave which enables the possiblity that DCU has many trophies and none at the same time? In which case, until any of us actually lays eyes on DCU's trophy case, there is the possibility that all of the above displayed trophies could be there as well as... the Dallas Mavericks 2006 NBA Championship, the 2017 XFL trophy, the Jules Rimet trophy, Steffi Graf, a perfect replica of George Washington's original teeth (not his dentures, the ones that he actually grew himself), the final digit in π, the whereabouts of Amelia Erhardts plane, the 1985 Chicago Bears, the last two NY Giants Super Bowl trophies with dedications to the teams that were actually better than them, Amelia Earhardt's plane, the NY Giants 1990 Super Bowl trophy with a dedication to the Buffalo Bills, every flat earth theorist's missing brain, Amelia Earhardt, a stack of ID-10Tango forms and set of the moon landing along with the robot crew who filmed it, on location,... on the fracking Moon after traveling there on the Apollo 11 rocket...

Upon viewing this room, it's contents which had previously existed in a *waveform probability which includes all of the above possibilities collapses into DC United's actual trophy contents. Perhaps this is why I have never seen the contents of an actual team's trophy case. Perhaps FIFA is still trying to calculate which one of the trophy cases in each club worldwide might actually have the Jules Rimet at a given moment. But the likely solution is that each MLS team could simply have a replica of the SS made or at the very least,... a plaque.

Toronto FC and Montreal have a similar quandry,... nothing has ever been stated to my knowledge about whether the Voyageurs will agree to make replicas but I feel like I have seen Canadian teams holding trophies that should belong to other Canadian cities during that time. Could just be an error on my part, and since only 3 teams have ever won it, it's a high chance that said team had just won it anyway. And are Conference Titles used to hold the doors open in trophy rooms?

But Montreal has history that doesn't include MLS. They display these titles on their stadium's rafters as does Portland. I would presume that Seattle would do the same if they didn't share a stadium with the Seahawks and have confirmation that San Jose has possession of trophies from the NASL-era Earthquakes. But, as before, we've no pictures and I've never personally seen it. So, a la *Schroedinger's Cat, anything could be there...

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So since this will obviously be followed by the obligatory TL;DR,... I'll just ask, straight-off, what's in your trophy-case, and have you actually seen it. And of course,... POIDH...



*The portrayal of probability waves expressed by the OP in this post do not necessarily reflect the theories, and viewpoints of respected physicists nor is representative in any way of QM or QFT. Please ignore these instances when he inserts them because it makes absolutely no sense... if you simply ignore this, he will probably stop doing it...

 

I know about this, though I can no longer find the articles that mentioned it, but I thought that they were supposed to have replicas made for their own trophy case?

 

Which player built it? Was it Ben Olsen? Are there Supporters Shield replicas there or are the above pictures photo-shopped? (Galaxy fans and other teams who have won the SS can chime in any time) And where are your pictures man?

 

So it seems that the Quakes, at least, have not created any type of replica or plaque as a placeholder for Supporters Shield wins. I would imagine that nothing would stop a club from paying to have one made, but it seems that they have all thus far respected the wishes of the supporters and not done so. Unless DC United actually has or they just photoshopped those images to represent their titles won, then this is not something that is done.

I keep thinking that I've heard of this being done in the NHL, however. Maybe this is a "Mandela Effect" or my own faulty memory if noone else has such memory of this being done.

 

And such is what I would have expected to be done for SS winners. At the very least, a mohogany plaque or some such. Something to put in the trophy case. Sure, banners are hung, but something to put in the trophy case would be nice. I really wish more posters from other SS winning teams would chime in here to give some insight on whether or not this is done differently by other teams.