Kirk Cousins files ‘You like that’ trademark, but not sure we do
First, there’s the obvious: In those rare moments when you are a celebrity — 15 minutes or otherwise — and you can capture the imagination of a nation with a catchphrase, you call your lawyer and have him or her start filing paperwork with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
It’s smart, right? Congratulations! You actually can sue people who pass said phrase off as their own once your mark has been accepted!
To this point, Kirk Cousins has gotten by as much on his intelligence and his timing as he has his athletic prowess. He stood idly by as Robert Griffin III coughed up his starting gig, which at least partly was his own doing, and was there to claim it. And the Washington Redskins are now in the midst of their best season since the Griffin-led 2012 club, and Cousins’ “you like that?!” has become the team’s unofficial rallying cry.
The beauty of the phrase is that it can be a question or a statement. It works both ways. You like that?! You like that. That’s powerful verbiage right there. When Redskins fans chanted it Sunday after their blowout of the Buffalo Bills, it most certainly was a statement — loud and clear.
It carried over to Shake Shack. But of course.
So naturally, Cousins is attempting to protect his phrase as his own.
This is America, and Cousins should do whatever he can to maximize his earning power. There is absolutely zero wrong with that. A year from now, if he tried to do this we’d likely laugh at his absolutely awful timing. He’d have missed out.
And this most certainly is a bizarre and wonderful time to be Kirk Cousins. The team’s successful. He’s playing well. He’s a free agent-to-be, with talk of being franchised at season’s end if he and the team can’t find common ground on a “big boy” contract. RG3? Who is that?
Do we like that? Yes, we do. But do we fear, as the Redskins have set us up for these past 20-plus year, that disappointment is right around the corner? Oh, heck yes.
So we’re ambivalent on it. Register your saying, Kirk, but be very prepared to be mocked with said words every time from here on out you or the team fails. This puppy will be embossed on your headstone, the low hanging fruit of blogs for years to come. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
If there’s a lesson from which to be learned, it’s from Griffin himself. Remember when he trademarked a slew of phrases related to him — RGIII, RG3, Robert Griffin III, and Unbelievably Believable — which felt like the start of the end for him? How much of a windfall did that move really land RG3? That’s one of the least-mocked things about him, but it’s part of the cult of personality he worked so hard to achieve and sell to the masses.
Cousins seems eminently more likeable and less me-centric than Griffin, but does this move change it? Oh, who knows? Winning tends to cure or mask a lot of things, and this might be forgotten tomorrow. Or it might be the mocking cry of one of the easiest-to-mock teams, assuming their inevitable fall is close behind.
We’re rooting for Cousins to do well and earn his big-money deal. The NFL feels right when the Redskins are a winning franchise, given all its tradition. But recent history has painted a far more dim picture for us. Let’s hope we’re wrong.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
