Super theft

 So again the other day one of those online sportsbook ads came on the Tee Vee, and again the Blob was struck by a couple of things.

One, that the NFL that once upon a time kicked Paul Hornung and Alex Karras out of the league for a year for gambling now is oh-so-cozy with the betting crowd. I mean, the Shield even moved one of its teams to Vegas, for pity's sake. And it apparently has an Official Online Sportsbook, because DraftKings was calling the Super Bowl the "Super Bowl," and rival Fan Duel was calling it the "Big Game."

Which brings me to the other thing by which the Blob was struck: The draconian hellscape of naming rights.

The NFL, sees, actually owns the exclusive rights to the term "Super Bowl," which is why no commercial venture that is affiliated with the league is allowed to say that. No, they have to call it the Big Game or something similarly generic, or risk the Shield throwing lawyers at them until the end of time.

This is completely absurd for a couple of reasons.

One, and most obvious, the term "Super Bowl" is itself generic, after 55 years. It's what the game has been called by virtually everyone in America since the Packers ran over the Chiefs in Super Bowl I. Claiming exclusive rights to the term is like Major League Baseball claiming exclusive rights to say "World Series." Or the NHL to decree no one can use the words "Lord Stanley" or "Stanley Cup" in any description of its playoffs.

Shoot. The NFL saying no one but people it makes money off of can say "Super Bowl" is  perilously close to banning use of the word "football." I'm completely serious.

Which brings us to the second reason this is so absurd.

Go back to the origins of "Super Bowl," see, and what you'll find is the NFL might have actually stolen the name itself. The story, possibly apocryphal, is that Lamar Hunt got the idea for "Super Bowl" from the Super Ball, a popular kid's toy of the time. Super Ball ... Super Bowl ...

It sings, by golly!

This being 1966 and a less litigious time, attorneys for Wham-O, the company that made the Super Ball, did not send a cease-and-desist letter to the NFL. And so Super Bowl it became, and Super Bowl it remains to this day.

Well. Unless you're a commercial enterprise not affiliated with the NFL, that is.

Then it's the Big Game. Or That Roman Numeral Thing. Or Sixty Minutes Of Commercials Occasionally Interrupted By A Football Game. Or Wait, Don't Change The Channel To The Puppy Bowl.

Me?

I'm kinda partial to the Stolen Name Bowl. It sings.