I don’t know if the rest of you have noticed, but there’s definitely something very “hey, here we are!” about the New England Revolution this year, the more frequent and a bit more candid videos notwithstanding.

Earlier this year, COO Brian Bilello alluded to the fact that there would be a more active attempt at getting the Revs into the world, that more events would be happening at Gillette, and that the marketing machine would be in full swing. We’ve seen evidence of all of that so far.

1. The Revs’ opening line-up series on Last Thursday’s game
2. The larger amount of video clips in the Revs’ media section
3. Video clips are more candid and seem less produced than last year
4. They’re modeling clothes. Do we need any more evidence than that?

This is great stuff, by the way. One of the reasons — along with a good record and quality play — that a team is popular is because it’s composed of characters. Icons to which the fans can relate. Larger-than-life figures that pull us out of our work-a-day drudgery on a Saturday or Sunday evening. The kind of publicity the Revs are producing is helping to create those characters off the field so that fans can relate to them on the field.

For instance:

• Matt Reis: unflappable in the net, but affable and approachable; a prankster; the Loki of the group
• Taylor Twellman and Pat Noonan: friends to the end; tit-for-tat joking buddies with communication abilities that border on telepathic
• Steve Ralston: “Iron Man”; the grand old man of soccer; able to target a moving striker from 15 yards at speeds exceeding 75 mph.

Well, you get the idea. What I want to see is a comic — even if it’s web-based — of the Revs as intergalactic superheroes destined to find the lost keys of Barouda and save the universe from certain destruction! Meanwhile, their mild-mannered alter egos use their powerful football brains to drop opponent after opponent on the field. Heck, why not? Remember the Mighty Ducks? Harlem Globetrotters on Scooby Doo? The 2004 “Cowboy Up” Red Sox?

Now, whether this additional publicity plays any part in the Revs’ ability to continue their so-far success on the pitch, I don’t know. Whatever happens, though, there will certainly be more scrutiny: succeed or fail. There’s also a division of labor apparent here, as well. While Bilello and the communications team build the image, Steve Nicol and Paul Mariner build the skills. Sounds like a pretty good match up to me.

What would you like to see for a publicity stunt by the Revs? What kind of character will Andy Dorman become? Wells Thompson? I can’t wait to find out

At the end of the season, we’ll hold a public review of the top 10 “Supah” Revs Fans. The best three will receive a real prize (to be announced in this space soon).

Sounds pretty good, eh? Well let’s get right to the trivia question:

How many managers did Steve Nicol play for while at Liverpool and who were they?

Think you know? Go ahead and send those entries to supahrevsfan [at] gmail.com. We’ll choose the first set of winners within the next two weeks. Remember: give us the correct answer and something that proves you’re the ultimate “Supah Revs Fan”.

Well, go on now. We’re waiting!

It’s good to have company out here. Which brings me to something else: I’ve got my one-man site (It’s a Simple Game) wired to an aggregator called Soccer Blogs (a useful service, by the way). Now I’ve found that when I post general soccer stuff – e.g. when my headline mentions something about, say, U.S. Soccer, or certain players, etc. – I’ll pick up a hit or two. But all the New England posts I do, either now or in the past, they rarely, rarely get hits of any kind.

Just thought that’s interesting, if a little puzzling. To this point, BigSoccer has been the place where Revs fans swap ideas, rumors, and opinion; given that, it seemed a little futile to work a Revs blog, that fans of the team just didn’t have much interest in checking out stand-along blogs so long as they had BigSoccer. There certainly didn’t seem to be the kind of blog presence I see with, say, teams like DC United, who are well-wired through sites of their own. Maybe that’ll change now that there are some options out here. Then again, maybe it won’t. The reading market will, I suppose, do what the reading market does and sort itself out.

I’m not saying this is good or bad. It simply is.