Now that the NCAA is allowing commercial sponsorship patches on jerseys, it has gotten me thinking about the possibilities for Virginia Tech.
A couple are pretty obvious. Since there is a turkey theme going on with the Hokies’ Fighting Gobblers nickname, Butterball is one obvious choice. Wild Turkey’s famous Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey would be the other.
Good product, great name, no-brainers.
But we Hokies are also creative thinkers. Picking either of those two would be the easy choice. And as Tina Turner once said, “we never ever do nothing nice…and easy.”
So I’d like to suggest a few more than are not as obvious.
One might be a company called Green Gobbler. It plays well off the Fighting Gobbler nickname, but does have a few risks. The product is used to unblock clogged plumbing, and should the team get off to a bad start, I could see someone saying “this season is going down the drain faster than my kitchen sink after using Green Gobbler.”
Another would be Spam Oven Roasted Turkey. They don’t sell a lot of it in favor of their more famous pork shoulder products, but what better way to raise awareness then slapping a patch that looks like a can of their turkey product on the Virginia Tech Fighting Gobblers?
Everybody likes ice cream, and our fan base isn’t exactly a directory of people on the carnivore diet, so why not Turkey Hill ice cream? Another one with a good name and a good product.
I think Tesla would be interesting in the NIL era, because let’s face it, players want to go where the money is. The implication to a recruit can be “come to Blacksburg, wear the Tesla patch on Saturday, and drive YOUR Tesla around on Sunday.”
The Franklin Mint would be an interesting choice given the name of the head coach and the cost of what it took to get him in Blacksburg. And if you really wanted to troll his previous school (and deep down inside many of us do) you could get Beaver Mustard as a sponsor. They make a very tasty product, and it would be appropriate, since about a dozen young men who will be playing in Lane this year played in Beaver Stadium last year.
Finally for something a little different, consider Turk & Turk, the law firm led by James Turk, who has defended many Virginia Tech players over the years when they’ve run into legal issues. You’re allowed two patches, so this one could go just to the offensive linemen. The slogan could be “The ultimate protection.”
More will come to me as I think on it.
Which may not be a good thing 😊
