While warming up for the Washington Redskins’ season opener against the New Orleans Saints, Griffin was sporting a shirt he had customized with the word “Heart” running down the left side. Why did he feel it necessary to go Sharpie-art on his warmup shirt? The “H” covered the logo of official NFL apparel sponsor Nike. Griffin has a endorsement deal with adidas that pays him quite handsomely.
That’s a no-no, RGIII
To the surprise of exactly no one, the NFL responded Wednesday by telling RGIII that covering up their best-friend’s logo was a no-no.
It won’t happen again
-NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy
The NFL said there would likely be no fine, since the transgression was a first time offence and he didn’t alter with his game uniform.
Nike wins here, since now we are talking about their 5-year deal with the NFL, and looking at photographs of the NFL’s hottest rookie with a poorly covered Nike logo. I mean, how many time have we said Nike in this article alone?
Should the NFL get all the money, and force their players to wear gear for which they don’t receive sponsorship money? Is brand consistency all-important? Does Sharpie ever belong on professional sports gear?
JR Francis is an actor, writer, director, graphic designer, UX guru, father, comedian, and craft beer snob. You can reach him at jrfrancis@sportslogos.net or on Twitter @JRFrancisSLN *One of several full-time uniform reporters this site has including its founder, Chris Creamer, who started his site in 1997
Mike
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 16:53Actually, Adidas wins here, and there's no fine that wouldn't be worth it to Adidas for him to do it again - which he should.
yh
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 16:55Griffin should be ashamed. Honestly, I cannot think of a more obnoxious use of a Sharpie in connection with an NFL game in the history of everything.
Kidd
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 17:50Apparently you've forgotten the T.O. incident.
Kyle
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 19:51apparently you don't know sarcasm.
alex Romanelli
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 16:56nike is the worst thing to happen to uniforms ever, they are cheap material and no breathing room and nobody cares because all nike & the nfl wanna do is make money
Jimmy Kemp
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 16:58I'd fine him big if I were the NFL, one, who signs with Adidas over Nike?
Joe G.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 18:55It's ridiculous that the NFL and Nike are just making money, I don't know that much about how quality the uniforms are, but if a player is sponsored by a company, he should be able to show off its' equipment, whether its Adidas, Reebok or the dozens of other companies. I think this is a big overreaction to a not very important issue. The issue is the cash-cow that the NFL purposely set up with Nike.
Brendan
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 22:53I think he deserves some sort of reprimand for the terrible 'artwork'. At first I wondered "wtf is an Eart?", THEN I saw the 'H'. Just ugly. Oh, and the Nike count in the piece is at nine including the comments. Ten, now that I wrote it.
Daniel Keeling
Thursday, September 13, 2012 at 08:18Call it a rookie mistake. -__- Ugh. Really RG3?
ingmar66
Saturday, September 15, 2012 at 15:05Do you remember MJ covering his Dream Team uniform in Barcelona 1992 with the national flag during the gold medal ceremony in order not to show the Champion logo? That was at least creative. Never put a sharpie in RG's hands again, the guy's lettering is horrible ;-)