Pro Football Reference is a daily visit for me. Heck, most of the day I have at least one tab open with some information in it — then the next morning I can’t remember what rabbit hole I went down that had me looking up the defensive stats of the 1987 Cincinnati Bengals. They were terrible by the way, despite having Dick LeBeau as their defensive coordinator, but I digress.
The worst NFL nicknames on Pro Football Reference
Nobody says any of these... ever.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
One of the features that Football Reference has is player nicknames. Find any profile, especially quarterbacks, and you’re likely to find a nickname on the player. Some of these make all the sense in the world. We know Tom Brady was TB12, or that Adrian Peterson was “All Day,” but dig a little deeper and some of these nicknames are absolutely off the way. So unknown, so niche, that it’s difficult to imagine that anyone ever used these.
Trevor Lawrence: The Prince Who Was Promised
This is the title of a Game of Thrones episode. Nobody has ever, ever used this with any kind of regularity. Going to Google Trends there’s so little search data for “Trevor Lawrence prince who was promised” that it doesn’t even register in Google.
Jared Goff: Mr. Perfect
On January 25, 2025 at 3 p.m. there were 100 people who searched for this nickname. Before and since there have been zero results.
Kirk Cousins: Kirko Chains
No, and no. It appears Cousins invented this one in 2022 in an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. Nobody has called him that, maybe ever, except for a single weekend caused by an Instagram post.
Caleb Williams: Superman
The genesis of this comes from Bears interim head coach Thomas Brown telling Caleb to “be like Superman” during an in-game moment his rookie season. It’s not a nickname. It didn’t stick. Stop.
Russell Wilson: All of them
The thing I love about Russ nicknames is that he literally comes up with all of them himself. This is because nobody cares enough about Russell Wilson or likes him enough, to come up with nicknames organically. DangeRuss is acceptable. The rest he invented himself on his own TikTok, which is sad as hell.
Patrick Mahomes: The Musician
Nobody has called Mahomes this. Also, these are too many nicknames. Nobody has this many nicknames.
Luke Kuechly: Captain America
- This was Roger Staubach’s nickname. You can’t just repurpose it.
- Everyone knows his nickname was simply “LUUUUUUUKE”
Myles Garrett: Big Foot
If you try to search this you only get information about his foot injury.
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