This has to be my favorite sports news story in quite some time.  Tampa Bay Buccaneers\' defensive end Greg White has legally changed his name to Stylez G. White.  Pretty cool, huh?  Not to totally kick it old-skool, but this reminds me of when NBA star Lloyd Free changed his name to World B Free back in the 1970s.

However, the back-story on this is a head-scratcher.  White settled on Stylez because of the film Teen Wolf (1985).  What?  In that film, hot on the heels of Michael J. Fox\'s successful turns in TV\'s Family Ties and the blockbuster hit Back to the Future (1985), Fox turns INTO A WOLF when provoked or angered, like a cute version of the Hulk, making him BMOC (especially after he becomes the team\'s basketball star).  White did not name himself after the teen wolf, though.  Instead, he was "inspired" by Rupert Stilinski, aka "Stiles" the party animal, played by Jerry Levine.  What?  Sorry.  Is there something I\'m not getting here?

I mean, come on.  If one is going to change their name because of a movie character, why not select a character from a film that isn\'t a total piece of crap.  Charles Foster Kane (Citizen Kane), Rick Blaine (Casablanca), Keyser Soze (The Usual Suspects), Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver), Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox\'s character in the Back to the Future films) ... hell, we all know Fox\'s quintessential young Republican character Alex P. Keaton is a cooler name to be inspired by than some scrub in a teen-centered B-film from the mid-1980s.

But who am I to judge? Stylez G. White\'s new name at least sounds good (and I think that was his intention).  Why couldn\'t he have stated that he got it from Lawrence Fishburne\'s character in Boyz in the Hood (1991): Furious Styles.  Better character, better film, same name.

Okay, so I\'m a film snob.  But that doesn\'t mean that Stylez G. White is the most notorious name-changer of late.  Chad Ocho Cinco, nee Chad Johnson, loud-mouthed wide receiver for the 2-11-1 Cincinnati Bengals (whose second win, sadly, came against my hapless Washington squad), changed his name because of a sideline prank a few years ago in which he altered his jersey, replacing his last name Johnson with Ocho Cinco, Spanish for Eight Five, his uniform number.  He got fined for that.

While Ocho Cinco thinks he\'s sticking it to the man, so far he hasn\'t.  He\'s not only having a bad year, but he must remain "Johnson" for the season because he would have to buy all the remaining Johnson jerseys before the NFL agrees to make new ones.  NFL 1, Ocho Cinco 0.

And the score is 2-0 when Ocho Cinco gets traded or signs to another team via free agency and he has to get a new uniform number.  It\'s not like when he resettles somewhere (which is inevitable), he will have enough clout left to get someone from the existing roster to change from 85.

--J.D. (name changed because I think the character played by Jack Black in Saving Silverman, J.D., is THE coolest!)