RGIII a game changer for wearing a roman numeral on his jersey

We're all familiar with the many sports terms that have moved into general usage: par for the course, slam dunk, curve ball, photo finish, and so on. Curiously

Frank Deford | Sep 26, 2012

RGIII a game changer for wearing a roman numeral on his jersey /

We're all familiar with the many sports terms that have moved into general usage: par for the course, slam dunk, curve ball, photo finish, and so on. Curiously though, every now and then something of the inverse occurs and we get a commonly used expression that has been derived from sport, but never used in sport.

For example that awful over-done cliché: level playing field. Never in my life have I ever heard anyone in sport -- that is, somebody actually right there on the level playing field -- say, "I'm glad we're playing on a level playing field."

Likewise: the ball is in your court. Nobody in tennis ever says that. Among other things, by the time you did, the ball would already be back over the net right smack in your court.

Or, soccer moms. Does any mother who has a child on a soccer team ever call herself a "soccer mom?" No. And by the way, what ever happened to the word "mother?" Nobody ever says "mother" anymore. Everybody just says "mom." When I was growing up, I had a mom and my buddy had a mom, but if you referred to more than one mom, you always said "mothers." There were no working moms then or Gold Star Moms or moms of invention and certainly no soccer moms. Oh well, that's a subject that deserves further discussion some other time.

But now we have a very popular new sports term that is never used in sports: game changer. Where did that come from? Nobody who plays a game ever says the game had a game changer. No, it has forever been obligatory in sport to say: turning point. Real games have turning points, but things that are not games have game changers.

Here, though, is a game changer, uniform-wise, that especially interests me. The star rookie quarterback of the Washington Redskins is named Robert Lee Griffin the third, and so far as I know he is the first player ever -- in the entire history of sports uniforms -- to have "the third" on his uniform. It says "GRIFFIN [roman numeral] III."

You see, I happen to be a third myself, although I dropped it as soon as my grandfather died and there weren't three of us with the same name around anymore. I don't know about young Mr. Griffin, but it's a terrible thing being the third. There's no place to put Roman numerals on forms, and it sounds snooty, like you're an earl or a duke, and sometimes you get mail addressed to Mr. Iii, because the computer has mixed up Roman numeral ones with letters.

However, maybe if you have "the third" on the back of your uniform this problem will not develop. In any event, I am sure that all the other American thirds, like me, are rooting for Robert Lee Griffin, the third. I hope his jersey is a big seller so us thirds will finally come into fashion.

Published Sep 26, 2012

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.