James White’s nickname traces back to a fake story about one of his ancestors stomping on snakes
Casual fans would be excused for assuming James White’s nickname “Sweet Feet” was derived from the Patriots running back’s nimble moves on the gridiron. In truth, the roots of the nickname are far more bizarre.
In an article Saturday, ESPN’s Mike Reiss traced the unlikely Super Bowl hero‘s “unique nickname” back to White’s high school days at St. Thomas Aquinas School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“One of the things we used to joke about was that he needed a good nickname for when he gets to the NFL, because James White is such a plain name,” Adam Aloma, a creative writing teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas, told Reiss.
During White’s senior year, Aloma was tasked with the annual tradition of hyping up the students during a pep rally with “an entertaining, fake story” ahead of the school’s 2009 Homecoming Week football game. Long story short, their opponent’s mascot was the Cobras and Aloma decided to incorporate that into his tale:
“My story was how it was tradition that St. Thomas stomps out the cobras. The whole story went back to James White’s great, great grandfather, who came to St. Thomas, and there was a cobra on campus that was terrorizing everybody. Everybody was scared of the cobra. Nobody knew how to handle it. Administration was scared. Everyone was locked in their rooms.
But James’ great, great grandfather was the only one brave enough to step into the hallways. His feet were so quick that he knew he could try to stomp on the cobra’s neck without getting bitten. So I referred to him as ‘Sweet Feet’ White and said, ‘That’s why James’ new nickname is James ‘Sweet Feet’ White.’”
Apparently, it stuck.
And while White admitted he thought it was “weird” at first, he has since embraced the nickname — as evidenced by his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/790295745416957952
