All-Name Team: Best monikers in the 2014 recruiting class
Ohio State-committed linebacker Raekwon McMillan is the defensive captain of SI's '14 All-Name Team.
Here at the Sports Illustrated Institute for Gridiron Nomenclature, we study all the important name trends. Unfortunately, some of those trends have the director of SIIGN feeling pretty old. From 2010 to '13, 26 players named Shaquille or Shaq signed to play football with FBS schools. Ten of those signed in '11, which makes sense because National Signing Day came a little less than 19 years after the Orlando Magic made Shaquille O'Neal the No. 1 pick in the 1992 NBA draft.
That was an important moment in the life of this young director, who lived in the Orlando suburbs at the time. When one's high school and college memories begin to show up in the names of people entering college, it means a significant amount of time has passed. That's why one particular player from the class of 2014 has the director feeling positively ancient. Many of you will probably feel the same way when you meet future Ohio State Buckeye Raekwon McMillan.
McMillan is a 6-foot-3, 245-pound linebacker from Liberty County High in Hinesville, Ga. And unless he has a great-great-great-uncle Raekwon somewhere in the McMillan family genealogy, there is a high likelihood that the top-rated linebacker in this year's recruiting class was named after a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. For those too old or too young to appreciate the reference, the Wu is a collective of rappers that emerged in 1993 from Staten Island -- they called it Shaolin, and who were we to argue? -- with
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). For a lot of 30- and 40-somethings, Raekwon, Method Man, RZA, GZA, ODB and the rest helped provide the soundtrack for early adulthood. Who knows? They may have inspired more parents. So when Inspectah Deck Smith signs in the class of 2016, don't be surprised.
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