First World Problems: NFL Worried About Glee’s Influence On Roman Numerals

02.02.12 Written by Brandon

These people: the reason you'll stop watching football.

Unless I can’t figure out how to get Ghorbash the Iron Hand to follow me through a ruin in Skyrim without bugging out and getting lost in the walls, this is the least important problem you’ll read about today: the NFL and Nike are concerned that if they use the Roman numeral “L” to represent the number 50 in 2016′s Super Bowl 50, people will think the Super Bowl and Nike mean “loser”. Remember when Super Bowl 30 happened and people started masturbating to it?
MyFoxDC.com expounds on the origin problem, going to great lengths to say, “hey, remember when Ace Ventura said loo-hoo-hoo zer-her? That’s what we’re worried about”.

In the 2003 book “Field Guide to Gestures,” the “loser gesture” was referenced as forming the letter L on your forehead with your index finger and thumb. The book offered a five-step primer that ended, “Say ‘loser’ with derision, generally elongating the first syllable.”
The sign has perpetuated in movies and TV shows since at least the 1990s. Most recently, the symbol was featured in promotional materials for “Glee” and has become something like a secret handshake for “Gleeks” since the show’s 2009 premiere.

L can mean a lot of things. Have you ever picked up a large shirt, looked at the tag and though “ugh, I can’t wear this, look at this tag, people will think I’m a loser“? Have you ever picked up a copy of ELLE magazine and flipped though it for LAN Party tips? Hopefully by the time 2016 rolls around, Glee will be long-canceled and the people in charge of the biggest sporting event on the planet will say, “okay, it’s a letter, let’s move on with our lives”. Or maybe they’ll call it SUPER BOWLL and go for a Lloyd Moseby vibe.
Until then, we have to out the people who get a hard-on from this as the world’s true losers:

“L standing for loser with a Nike swoosh right above it — I love that,” said Blake Lundberg, general manager of Adidas’ sports licensed division.

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