3afan
01-31-2006, 07:02 AM
DMN LINK (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/013106dnspoblackistonecol.cea92c6.html)
Seattle has one 12th Man too many
No Aggie joke: A&M files for restraining order vs. Seahawks
03:37 AM CST on Tuesday, January 31, 2006
That it happened on Halloween 25 years ago turned out to be apropos, because the whole thing looked sort of scary at first. The officer of the day for the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets brandished his saber at an SMU cheerleader who dared step on Kyle Field's football grid to celebrate a Pony Express trampling that day of the Aggies.
Fortunately, all that ensued was a brief wrestling match. The whole thing wound up to be a hoot.
If any injury was suffered, it was to the perception of those who bleed maroon and white and consider Kyle Field turf some sort of sacred ground. Are they crazy, or what?
Not that Aggies care what the rest of us think. They live to be a little different. As their saying goes: "From the outside, you can't understand it. From the inside, you can't explain it."
The Seattle Seahawks, who just arrived in Detroit for Sunday's Super Bowl, probably weren't aware of that most-infamous event at Kyle Field that underscored the quirkiness that constitutes Aggiedom. But they know now.
The Aggies just brandished their weaponry once again when they filed for a restraining order against the Seahawks on Monday. They're miffed that the Seahawks have started employing a 12th man slogan that A&M made famous for decades and trademarked in 1990.
The Seahawks have hung a banner emblazoned with the number 12 on their home stadium, Qwest Field, and their team shop is selling game jerseys and pennants with the number. A fan Web site has computer wallpaper that can be downloaded which reads: "At Home We are the 12th Man" and "On the Road We are the 12th Man."
"Calling your fans a 12th man is one thing," A&M's chief marketing officer, Steve Moore, explained to me Monday.
Using it commercially, Moore said, is quite another.
So A&M responded by asking Seattle to cease and desist, just as they've asked the Bears and the Bills to drop 12th Man type slogans in previous years.
Moore said the Bears and Bills responded by shutting down any such references.
The Seahawks responded by saying they haven't copied A&M's stamp and, in fact, have merely resurrected their own 12th man rallying cry from the early '80s, well before A&M trademarked the number.
The cynic in me responds by saying this is more about A&M athletic director Bill Byrne, who was so successful at drumming up interest and dollars for Nebraska before being lured to College Station, seizing an opportunity to publicize his employer. There is not an Aggie joke here. This may not be serious business, but it is business nonetheless.
For what A&M has just done is interject its name at no cost to itself into the biggest sports event of the year, where seconds of advertisement are sold for millions of dollars. It's the kind of move the inventors of Guinness brew would term "brilliant!"
Texas fans, of course, would point out that it almost beats being in the BCS national championship game and winning it.
After all, who is going to confuse the Seahawks' 12th man cry with A&M's 12th Man Foundation? No one.
Can Seattle's use of the number 12 to pump up their fans really siphon off fund-raising or sales of 12th Man merchandise in College Station? Not a chance.
Moore said the reason his office is complaining about the Seahawks is to demonstrate how serious it is about having trademarked the slogan 16 years ago. He said federal trademark officials demand such concern if the keeper of the trademark is to be taken seriously anytime a case threatening its trademark comes up.
"We're happy for them," Moore said of the Seahawks' success.
He pointed out that the Seahawks' strength trainer, Mike Clark, was the Aggies' strength trainer for 14 years. Seahawks defensive tackle Rocky Bernard is an Aggie, too.
Seattle's use of "12" isn't just of little threat to A&M; it doesn't make much sense for the Super Bowl, either. The Super Bowl participating teams only get a small percentage of the seats at the big game. The NFL caters its title game for corporate sponsors. It doesn't arrange it for long-suffering season-ticket holders like those who've supported the Seahawks, a club that hadn't won a playoff game in over a generation, let alone ever advanced to the Super Bowl.
But one thing you can say about the Seahawks' use of the 12th man motto is it's not real imaginative.
As representatives of a city that gave us the new business paradigm Microsoft, the Seahawks marketing department should be forced to cough up the slogan just on sheer lack of creativity. And they probably will, next Monday.
Seattle has one 12th Man too many
No Aggie joke: A&M files for restraining order vs. Seahawks
03:37 AM CST on Tuesday, January 31, 2006
That it happened on Halloween 25 years ago turned out to be apropos, because the whole thing looked sort of scary at first. The officer of the day for the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets brandished his saber at an SMU cheerleader who dared step on Kyle Field's football grid to celebrate a Pony Express trampling that day of the Aggies.
Fortunately, all that ensued was a brief wrestling match. The whole thing wound up to be a hoot.
If any injury was suffered, it was to the perception of those who bleed maroon and white and consider Kyle Field turf some sort of sacred ground. Are they crazy, or what?
Not that Aggies care what the rest of us think. They live to be a little different. As their saying goes: "From the outside, you can't understand it. From the inside, you can't explain it."
The Seattle Seahawks, who just arrived in Detroit for Sunday's Super Bowl, probably weren't aware of that most-infamous event at Kyle Field that underscored the quirkiness that constitutes Aggiedom. But they know now.
The Aggies just brandished their weaponry once again when they filed for a restraining order against the Seahawks on Monday. They're miffed that the Seahawks have started employing a 12th man slogan that A&M made famous for decades and trademarked in 1990.
The Seahawks have hung a banner emblazoned with the number 12 on their home stadium, Qwest Field, and their team shop is selling game jerseys and pennants with the number. A fan Web site has computer wallpaper that can be downloaded which reads: "At Home We are the 12th Man" and "On the Road We are the 12th Man."
"Calling your fans a 12th man is one thing," A&M's chief marketing officer, Steve Moore, explained to me Monday.
Using it commercially, Moore said, is quite another.
So A&M responded by asking Seattle to cease and desist, just as they've asked the Bears and the Bills to drop 12th Man type slogans in previous years.
Moore said the Bears and Bills responded by shutting down any such references.
The Seahawks responded by saying they haven't copied A&M's stamp and, in fact, have merely resurrected their own 12th man rallying cry from the early '80s, well before A&M trademarked the number.
The cynic in me responds by saying this is more about A&M athletic director Bill Byrne, who was so successful at drumming up interest and dollars for Nebraska before being lured to College Station, seizing an opportunity to publicize his employer. There is not an Aggie joke here. This may not be serious business, but it is business nonetheless.
For what A&M has just done is interject its name at no cost to itself into the biggest sports event of the year, where seconds of advertisement are sold for millions of dollars. It's the kind of move the inventors of Guinness brew would term "brilliant!"
Texas fans, of course, would point out that it almost beats being in the BCS national championship game and winning it.
After all, who is going to confuse the Seahawks' 12th man cry with A&M's 12th Man Foundation? No one.
Can Seattle's use of the number 12 to pump up their fans really siphon off fund-raising or sales of 12th Man merchandise in College Station? Not a chance.
Moore said the reason his office is complaining about the Seahawks is to demonstrate how serious it is about having trademarked the slogan 16 years ago. He said federal trademark officials demand such concern if the keeper of the trademark is to be taken seriously anytime a case threatening its trademark comes up.
"We're happy for them," Moore said of the Seahawks' success.
He pointed out that the Seahawks' strength trainer, Mike Clark, was the Aggies' strength trainer for 14 years. Seahawks defensive tackle Rocky Bernard is an Aggie, too.
Seattle's use of "12" isn't just of little threat to A&M; it doesn't make much sense for the Super Bowl, either. The Super Bowl participating teams only get a small percentage of the seats at the big game. The NFL caters its title game for corporate sponsors. It doesn't arrange it for long-suffering season-ticket holders like those who've supported the Seahawks, a club that hadn't won a playoff game in over a generation, let alone ever advanced to the Super Bowl.
But one thing you can say about the Seahawks' use of the 12th man motto is it's not real imaginative.
As representatives of a city that gave us the new business paradigm Microsoft, the Seahawks marketing department should be forced to cough up the slogan just on sheer lack of creativity. And they probably will, next Monday.