MKRob Sports

If the speculation and research is true, then the new Orlando franchise in the United Football League will be called the Tuskers.

The new names were first discovered by Mark Nelson of uflfansite.com.

Upon searching the U.S. Government Trademark Search Engine, sure enough, trademark applications have been made by the UFL for the Orlando Tuskers, San Francisco Rockfish, Las Vegas Locomotives and the New York Sentinels.

In the trademark application listings there are five serial numbers associated with the UFL, which has applied for the rights to the name Orlando Tuskers on everything from posters to money clips to CD covers.

One listing reads: Word Mark: ORLANDO TUSKERS; Goods and Services IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Entertainment services in the form of professional football games and exhibitions

The league, which has also registered domain names for the teams, was set to unveil the team names, uniforms and logos in August.

“There are many great potential names for UFL franchises and we are doing our due diligence in narrowing down the choices. We recently filed multiple trademarks per market to further narrow down the selections,” said UFL spokeswoman Rachel Gary on Sunday night. “We plan to announce our names in the next two weeks and until that time, all names being circulated are merely speculative.”

Further searches showed no other entries for the Orlando team — just Tuskers.

So, just what is a Tusker? Glad you asked.

A Tusker is a wild boar, many of which roam wild throughout the everglades and the state of Florida. Apparently the league did extensive historical research to come up with the names.

The UFL has been in the news quite a bit lately with the speculation that Michael Vick could end up as Orlando’s quarterback if the NFL suspends the recently released Vick after his 23-month sentence for dogfighting.

The six-game UFL schedule begins in October.