Great Sports Name Hall of Fame Nominee - Earthwind Moreland

I thought that my first 21 names presented for election into the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame were good ones, even very good ones (besides obvious lame names like Corey Alston and Will Shields). However, a few voters mentioned names that I had left out of the first ballot that they would have liked to see. Most of these names I already had thought of, and they will be nominated for this second ballot if they're funny/interesting enough. But one I had missed, shockingly since it's a great name, is Earthwind Moreland. Earthwind was, awesomely enough, named after the band Earth, Wind, and Fire. Sadly his career has been much less successful than September ever was.

After a four year college career, Earthwind spent time on the roster/practice squad of the Buccaneers, Saints, Jets, Browns, Jaguars, and Vikings, with no actual playing time. He finally received playing time with the 2004 Patriots, where he had 17 tackles and a fumble recovery, but was cut after the season. This was a shame considering that he had worked his way up to playing in Dime package for the Patriots, but considering that Troy Brown was the Nickel corner at the time, this was less than impressive.

Since that cut, Earthwind has been out of the NFL minus a few weeks in 2006 where he was in the Texans camp. He played for a while for the Las Vegas Gladiators of the AFL before the league folded. More recently in 2008, he was drafted byTeam Arkansas of the All American Football League. While this league had to delay it's inaugural season to 2009 because of several factors, it does require a four year college degree for all of its players, good news for the Todd Boeckmans of the world. But bad news for Earthwind, as it's hard to believe that a guy could start 2 games for a Super Bowl winner and then find zero interest in his services on the free agent market.

Here's to hoping Earthwind makes it back to the NFL someday. And here's to great parents like Mrs. Moreland and Mr. Monds for eschewing the "normal" names one might pick for a child and instead inventing pure awesome.

Additionally, I have an update on Wonderful Terrific Monds! Apparently he owns a cleaning service that was recently charged with unfair labor practices. A sad update, but a where are they now nonetheless. Thanks to Wax Heaven for the tip.

To see the best sports names of all time, visit the Truly Great Names page.
To see some good sports names that were voted out, visit the Good Names page.
To see the current voting ballot, visit the Ballot page.