The NFL was not pleased with Robert Griffin III’s decision to cover up the Nike swoosh on the warm-up shirt he was wearing before last Sunday’s game against the Saints. Griffin took a black marker and wrote the word “Heart” down his chest (see a picture here), blatantly making the “H” wide enough to cover the entire Nike logo on his long-sleeve shirt. As he was likely anticipating, the NFL has spoken to him over it.
“It won’t happen again,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told ESPN.com.
Players are permitted to sport the logos of athletic wear brands that endorse them as long as those brands have a deal with the league. One thing they can’t do is cover up the logo of an endorser like Nike, who signed a five-year deal with the league prior to this season expecting none of its players to boycott their famous swoosh design.
For such a young player, Griffin has already made a number of decisions that indicate he is very business savvy. He is a proud endorser of adidas and even represented them with the stripes on one of his quirky pairs of socks. RG3 received nothing more than a warning for covering up the Nike swoosh on his shirt, but his mission is already accomplished. Anyone who didn’t know he was a proud adidas guy before Sunday probably knows now.
