Sports Logos and the Season of RGMe

Oh what a glorious time of year for sports fans!

March Madness just wrapped up, with UCONN destroying EVERYBODY’S brackets, MLS and EPL are on the pitch, NBA finals are fast approaching, the drive for the Stanley Cup will start in a few weeks and baseball is in full swing.

And let’s not forget the team of “I” that is RG3 of the Washington Redskins.

In the highly competitive world of team branding (see Eric Johnsen’s excellent post on The National’s re-branding) the idea of a third year ballplayer trotting out his brand new logo after a crappy year on a crappy team that went 3-13, doesn’t sit well with this lifelong fan. Arrrrggg-G-3, yer killin’ me!!

Every player of any team has the right to brand and promote him/herself and cash in as much as possible. Sports is a fleeting career, and more than a few participants’ livelihoods are over by the time they reach their mid-30’s – I get it.

But the idea of such an un-proven talent promo-ing his Megatron rip-off logo before he’s really DONE anything in the sport just rankles. And on another note, I wonder how much Adidas charged him for that abomination?

There are a few players that come to mind who have their own logos, but they have been around and actually have accomplished something in their sport.

A quick list:

• DWIGHT HOWARD – An eight-time All-Star, seven-time All-NBA team selection, five-time All-Defensive member, and three-time Defensive Player of the Year, has set numerous franchise and league records.
• DERRICK ROSE – Voted the Rookie of the Year, was selected to the All-Rookie Team. In his second elected as an NBA All-Star for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game; named a starter for the U.S. team at the 2010 FIBA World Championships. In 2011, he received the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, becoming the youngest player ever to win this award (age 22).
• LIONEL MESSI – By the age of 21, in 2009, he won his first Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He followed this up by winning the inaugural FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2010, and then again in 2011 and 2012. Won the 2010–11 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. At 24, Messi became Barcelona’s all-time top scorer in all official club competitions, and at age 25, Messi became the youngest player to score 200 La Liga goals.
• RG3 – Played college ball for Baylor University, and won the 2011 Heisman Trophy. Won the 2012 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

And then…

Granted he blew his knee, continued to play, and wrecked the knee even further, came back last season and played, but was lackluster at best. So, having really done nothing except promote himself, he really hasn’t done much…but boy does he have a spiffy new, albeit lousy, logo.

Sometimes a logo is needed, sometimes it’s deserved, and sometimes (in this case) it’s just better to wait ‘til you’ve a got a product worth buying into.