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Thursday, May 21, 2009
Call him "Macho," please

Here is the real news from the Eagles' roster:

Macho Harris is his name. Not Victor. Macho.

It says so, right there on the Eagles' website. And the change was confirmed by the club. The cornerback from Virginia Tech whom the Eagles drafted in the fifth round last month has a real first name on his birth certificate, name of Victor, but that's done. The preference now, on first reference, is to use the nickname that his family gave him as a young child. Macho Harris.

The Eagles have done this before. This club has endured more name changes in the last couple of years than the Wachovia Center.  Tra/William/Tra Thomas was one. Will Peterson/William James was another one. Juqua Thomas/Juqua Parker was still another one. Then there is Tank Daniels, who is really Torrance Daniels, except that he is now Tank Daniels. Got all that?

As you are no doubt aware, the NFL can get a little persnickety about all of this when it starts to touch the revenue stream, as it did in the case of the Bengals' Chad Johnson, who wants to be known as Chad Ocho Cinco. The league fought him on this for a while, mostly because of all the jerseys in stores with "Johnson" on the back of them. Now the NFL has relented -- except that, because of the manner in which the official paperwork was filled out, the league is insisting that the official name is "Ochocinco" and not "Ocho Cinco."

But if you want to change your first name, the league apparently doesn't care so much. There aren't any legal documents consulted or anything like that. You want to change your first name, you just change it. In fact, if Macho Harris wanted to change his name again, he could.

Machocinco is still available, for instance.

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Click here for an earlier post about the NFL and the labor hammer is now wields.

Posted by Rich Hofmann @ 11:02 AM  Permalink | 10 comments
10
Comments   
Posted 11:06 AM, 05/21/2009
AllDawk_AllTheTime
make the team - then you're Macho.
Posted 11:21 AM, 05/21/2009
BigDawg13
Rich, Macho was drafted in the 5th round, not the 7th.
Posted 11:28 AM, 05/21/2009
rich hofmann
BigDawg13, good catch. It's fixed now. Thanks.
Posted 01:33 PM, 05/21/2009
Bake McBride
I agree that Machocinco is a suitable name, Rich. MachuPichu would help his endorsement potential more though.
Posted 02:10 PM, 05/21/2009
MClarke13
Bake, how about MachoPickU?
Posted 02:37 PM, 05/21/2009
dragoon6
Sorry. No cool nicknames for rookies. You're "Victor" until you hit somebody hard. Dawkins hard. Come to think of it...you're not even "victor" 'till you win a game. For now, you're just "Harris."
Posted 04:15 PM, 05/21/2009
VegasEagleFan
Or like Buddy Ryan would say that number 35, until they did something great like make the pro bowl or lead the league in interceptions in his rookie year. I do like Macho Harris. Just hope he does better than Rockemback/Reichenbach
Comment removed.
Posted 12:07 AM, 05/22/2009
mish798798
With a name like Macho, he better bring the lumber on every hit. Or join the Village People.
Comment removed.
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About Rich Hofmann
Rich Hofmann arrived at the Daily News in 1980 for a job whose status was officially designated as "full-time, temporary." A senior at Penn at the time, he was hired to fill in on the copy desk during a staff illness. The notion of him covering the Eagles or being a columnist did not exist in anyone's imagination. It was supposed to be six weeks and out, but he never left. It is only one of the reasons why so many people have concerns about him as a potential house guest. Rich has blogged the postseasons of the Flyers and Eagles.

You can now follow The Idle Rich on Twitter.
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