The Greatest Nicknames in NFL History

Image via Complex Original

Deion Sanders was all about flash on the football field. The interceptions and kick returns, and the high-stepping, showboating celebration that often followed in the end zone, made him a must-watch player throughout his Hall of Fame career with the Falcons, 49ers, and Cowboys. (The Redskins and Ravens years don’t really count.) You’d think that with his résumé, and additional side job as a pro-baseball player, the “Prime Time” nickname would stem from his incredible multi-sport exploits—but, not so. In fact, he earned the nickname in high school playing pickup basketball during the “prime time” TV hours, where he would ball so hard that his friends declared Sanders himself must-see viewing.

People forget now, but Calvin Johnson was a somewhat controversial pick at No. 2 in the 2007 NFL Draft. The Detroit Lions passed on Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson to take Johnson, who had, had a remarkable career at Georgia Tech but didn’t have the name recognition of Peterson. Johnson’s teammate Roy Williams, however, saw something in his young receiver that made him believe. “Megatron is a different athlete,” he said at the time, noting that Johnson’s monstrous hands resembled that of the earth (and Shia LaBeouf) destroying robots of movie fame. With five Pro Bowls and the single-season receiving yards record (2012) to his credit, Megatron has been running roughshod over NFL defensive backs ever since.

Did you know that Greene’s first name isn’t actually Joe? Yeah, neither did we. But there’s something about “Mean Charles Edward Greene” that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, so Greene has always gone by plain old “Joe.” How he became “Mean,” however, was actually a case of mistaken identity. The good people of Pittsburgh were very excited when the Steelers chose Greene with the fourth overall pick in the 1969 NFL Draft. And upon hearing the words “mean” and “green” spoken, they immediately assumed it was in reference to their new defensive lineman. But they were wrong. It was actually the nickname of Greene’s college, the University of North Texas, but nobody had the heart to tell them and the nickname stuck.

Hall-of-Famer Lane could hit people with the force of an oncoming train, but that was not the reason fans around the world knew him as “Night Train.” It was actually because Lane was afraid of flying throughout his NFL career. During his playing career he would take a train to any away game the Rams, Cardinals, or Lions had. He was also one of the most ferocious hitters the game has ever seen, thanks to his then-legal technique of essentially clotheslining anybody who got near him. He was so prolific that even his tackles had a nickname: the Night Train Necktie.

We’ll give you one guess how Ed Jones earned the nickname “Too Tall.” Hint: It might have something to do with the fact that he could stand toe-to-toe with almost any power forward in the NBA. The nickname began when some fool on his Tennessee State college team tried to say on the first day of practice that Jones’ pants didn’t fit because he was “too tall to play football.” Three Pro Bowls and an estimated 106 career sacks later, we’re going to go ahead and say that this was not a correct statement. Jones could most definitely play football. 

While there are conflicting reports about the origin of Craig Heyward’s “Ironhead” moniker, both seem completely plausible. The first goes that while Heyward was still in high school he was so crazy strong, and had such a crazy big head (8 ¾ hat size FTW), that there was really nothing else you could call him. The other story comes from Heyward’s New York Times obituary (he died of cancer in 2006), claiming that Heyward “would lower his head into tacklers' stomachs, and one opponent said it hurt so much that Heyward's head had to be made of iron. Once, Heyward said, a youngster clubbed him over his size 8 ¾ head with a billiard cue. The cue broke in half.” 

This seems like an easy one, right? “Charlie” comes from Bednarik’s first name Charles, and “Concrete” because of his fierce tackling—not quite. The “Charlie” part is true, but the Hall of Famer became known as “Concrete Charlie” because of how he used to spend his off-seasons: selling concrete for the Warner Company. Of course, Bednarik’s prolific tackling ability helped build his mystique, as did his attitude that every single modern player is “overpaid and underplayed” and should be on the field for the entire game. Right to the end, Bednarik was the definition of an NFL tough guy.

Roaming the secondary with reckless abandon and dishing out hits that were often of questionable legality, just in life, let alone on an NFL field, Jack Tatum truly earned the nickname “The Assassin.” Best remembered for his questionable hit in the 1978 preseason that paralyzed New England Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley, Tatum was a force to be reckoned with on the field and made his way to three straight Pro Bowls from 1973 to 1975. 

When Marshawn Lynch gets moving, he’s basically impossible to stop. Just ask the New Orleans Saints, who in January of 2011 helped to usher the nickname “Beast Mode” onto the national stage. While Lynch had often referred to his in-game persona as “Beast Mode” before this NFC playoff clash, his electric 67-yard touchdown run literally caused the earth to shake in Seattle and the entire world to stand up and take notice. The quirky running back has hardly looked back since, even launching his own “Beast Mode” clothing line.

When William Perry was 11 years old, he weighed 200 pounds. That is insane. At 295 pounds in high school, Perry could pull off 360-degree dunks on a regulation size basketball hoop. That is also insane. When he got to college, Perry became “The Refrigerator” when teammate Ray Brown tried to get into an elevator with only Perry but could barely fit. Brown looked at his teammate, said, “Man, you're about as big as a refrigerator,” and gave birth to one of the most apt nicknames in professional sports history.

You have to be pretty damn good to get the nickname “Sweetness.” Walter Payton was everything that the name implied: Graceful yet powerful on the field, eloquent and humble off it. While nobody quite knows where it came from—some say it was because of his pleasant demeanor, some say it was his athleticism, and some say it was meant to be ironic because of how hard Payton would hit opponents while running with the ball—what matters is what the Bears great did with it. He won three NFL MVP awards and was named to nine Pro Bowls, and was the focal point of one of football’s greatest teams, the 1985 Bears.

A defensive end who revolutionized the position, David Jones became “Deacon” in part because he did not like how many other people in the phone book were named “David Jones.” In a 1980 interview with the LA Times, Jones said, “Football is a violent world and Deacon has a religious connotation. I thought a name like that would be remembered.” While that’s certainly a nice sentiment, it also helps if you’re a game-changing football player with a legacy so prolific that the rules have to be changed after you retire. Jones’ patented head slap was one of the most effective ways ever created for a player to get to the quarterback—and it was banned from the game once Jones retired in 1974.

The term “fast” is thrown around with recklessness these days. But “Bullet” Bob Hayes really was next level fast. A national champion sprinter at Florida A&M, Hayes was drafted in the seventh round of the 1964 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys even though his actual skills as a receiver were so-so. However, Hayes’ football career would have to wait, as he instead headed over to Tokyo and the Summer Olympics, where he won gold medals in the 100-meter dash and 4×100-meter relay. Hayes then got going on his football career in 1965, promptly making three straight Pro Bowls thanks to his basically un-coverable speed.

Few players have ever been able to rush the quarterback like Reggie White. A defensive end for the Eagles, Packers, and Panthers, White was named to a staggering 13 Pro Bowls and 10 All-Pro First Teams during his NFL career, which would have been longer had White not spent his first two seasons as a pro playing in the USFL. While he was in college, White showed his softer side and became an ordained Baptist minister. By the time he was being named a consensus All-American and SEC Player of the Year as a senior, White was known across the country as “The Minister of Defense.”

“The Bus” is kind of self-explanatory for a guy who is 5-foot-11 and 260 pounds, right? Jerome Bettis made a career out of running through tacklers, with a body like a battering ram that bludgeons anything in its path. During Bettis’ college days at Notre Dame, the school paper became the first to declare their star running back a “Bus,” and after a brief, early career stop with the LA Rams, Bettis once again found himself donning the nickname thanks to the Steelers’ radio commentary team. A Hall of Famer and No. 6 on the NFL’s all-time rushing list, this powerful back more than earned his reputation.

The guarantee, the fur coat, the epic nights on the town—everything about Joe Namath was New York, and the Jets’ quarterback quickly became one of the most recognizable faces in the city after choosing the AFL team over the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals in 1965. After a Sports Illustrated cover showed the rookie standing in the middle of Broadway, the quarterback had truly arrived as “Broadway Joe,” and would be followed by that nickname long after his career ended. Better to be “Broadway Joe” than “Goat Tom.”

The NFL does not get many players from Nigeria, as you might expect. The league really had never seen someone with Christian Okoye’s blend of size and speed, as the 6-foot-1, 250-pound running back quickly emerged from out of nowhere and became known as the “Nigerian Nightmare,” thanks to his devastating hits on opposing defenders who attempted to stop him. Despite seeing his career cut short by nagging knee injuries and a lack of interest in football, Okoye made two Pro Bowls. Apart from Bo Jackson, he remains one of Tecmo Super Bowl’s most beloved players for users to control.

Comparing a football player to a baby deer doesn’t really seem flattering, but in Lance Alworth’s case it certainly was intended that way. The Chargers’ wide receiver was a player who could excel in today’s game, an incredible athlete who could run faster, cut quicker, and jump higher than anybody who tried to cover him. The College Football Hall of Fame says that animal-like ability, combined with his “big brown eyes” (seriously), are why his Chargers teammates immediately linked him to the orphaned deer of Disney fame. 

Contrary to what this poster will have you believe, Mike Singletary was not known as “Samurai” because he could wield a ginza sword like the ancient Japanese warriors. That would have been amazing and next-level intimidating, but sadly it was not meant to be. Instead, the name derived from the linebacker’s intense focus on the field and commitment to absolutely destroying his opponents, which he did to the tune of 10 Pro Bowls and two AP Defensive Player of the Year awards. The Bears most definitely could win with him.

Perhaps nobody better embodied the brash, trash-talking style of the 1990s Cowboys more than Michael Irvin. He had the audacity to nickname himself “The Playmaker,” only to go out on the field and…make plays. During the Cowboys’ run of three Super Bowl titles in four seasons, Irvin made the Pro Bowl every single season and set a record in 1995 with 11 games of 100-plus receiving yards (since equaled by Calvin Johnson in 2012). Prior to that, he was a star at the University of Miami, where he was named to the school’s Hall of Fame after leading the Hurricanes to a national title in 1987, and setting then-records for receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns.