I don’t know how many of you heard last season, around the time of the Super Bowl, that the Texas A&M Aggies took legal action to force the Seattle Seahawks to stop using the term “12th Man.” The Aggies citied that they have the phrase trademarked and have been using it since 1922, and that no one else has the right to call their fans the “12th Man.” Well, yesterday the two sides agreed that the Seahawks can use the phrase, but they had to acknowledge ownership of the prase belongs to A&M.

I am sorry but, this seems a little much to me. Texas A&M owns the right to a commonly used phrase in sports? I am sorry but no. If that is the case, I am gonig to run, not walk, to the nearest patent and copyright office and trademark every sports phrase possible such as, for example, “6th Man” as used in basketball. But then what next… could colleges, high schools, and professional sports teams going to fight to see who was the first team to use the moniker “Spartans,” or “Rams” and trademark those too? What about terms like “curveball,” “slapshot,” and “slam dunk?”

Even if Texas A&M was the first team ever to use the phrase, why not just be happy in knowing that your school was the original, and that your school helped to make a contribution (very small one, but good one nonetheless) to the sports world. What was once a great story and tradition, is now going to be better known to younger fans by its legal history, not its great legend. College sports have been ruined enough lately for the fans by means of scandal, greed, and contraversy. So please stop, seriously… just stop.