July 06, 2007
The Decline And Fall Of The Sports Nickname
Over at Newsweek, Devin Gordon is lamenting the lost art of the sports nickname:
I don’t know why I’m surprised. Over the years, our culture’s gift for nicknaming has slowly vanished along with so many of our other celebrated American skills, like nation-building and math. The same country that came up with the Splendid Splinter, the Say Hey Kid and Mr. October now settles for A-Rod, T-Mac and AI. (Don’t even get me started on the San Diego Chargers’ franchise running back LaDanian Tomlinson, whose nom de plume, LT, is not only lame but recycled, too. Excuse me, LaDanian, but Lawrence Taylor called and he wants his nickname back.)
What passes for creativity these days is taking the word “big” and sticking some physiologically or descriptively appropriate term after it. Which is why the sports landscape has a Big Hurt, a Big Papi, a Big Unit—which has never been confirmed, by the way—and even a Big Fundamental. That last one is Tim Duncan’s nickname. Or if you prefer, you can call him by his other nickname: Timmy.
Nick Summers, who also writes for Newsweek -- and interviewed me a number of months ago -- writes ...
Alexander Ovechkin is simply too good to have a nickname as unoriginal as Ovie, OV-1, or (puke) "Alexander the GR8." I'm trying to build a grassroots campaign for "O Face," after the way he goes bezerk after scoring. You with me?
"O-Face"? So what do you say Caps fans?
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I fully agree. The simplicity of something like new nicknames like A-Rod and T-Mac must make Patrick Ewing glad that he missed this trend by about 10 years.
Posted by:
at July 6, 2007 04:34 PM
can we blame this on ESPN, especially Chris "hey Beerman"?
Posted by:
at July 6, 2007 06:41 PM
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