A Gulf Long Bomb? It May Be a Football

The American taxpayer will be glad to know that, among other activities, troops on duty in Saudi Arabia will get to fling Finley’s football.

Charlie Finley, the former Oakland Athletics owner, designed a football with yellow stripes to make it easier to see. This is the man who, when he owned the Oakland Athletics, urged the use of orange baseballs for better visibility. He decked his team out in green and yellow outfits that drew laughs back in the 1960s but have become the standard today.

“I want the troops to be among the first to use this football,” Finley said in explaining why he loaded two trucks with footballs to be shipped to the Persian Gulf.

“I think they will agree that this is the football of the future,” Finley said.