Political Correctness Madness

Wow! My nephew was creating a new football team for NCAA Football 10 for the XBox 360 at TeamBuilder.com and found he couldn't use his last name in the game. His last name is Dykes. Seems the people at EA Sports won't allow usage of a valid last name because it coincides with a derogatory term for a lesbian? Gimme a break! This has gone beyond all rational thinking into the land of stupidity.

I thought at first he was just pulling my leg but when I went to create a team for one of his brothers to use, I encountered the same stupid problem. I understand EA not wanting derogatory terms to be used in their product but to ban a legitimate name because it might also be used in that fashion seems to cross the line of all reason. I decided to investigate a bit farther.

Seems "Queen" is fine however anyone named Richard who goes by "Dick" is out of luck. If your last name is "Pus" then no problem but if your last name is "Puss" you can't use it. Looks like "Acock" is alright but I hope Ms. M. Pussycat from Massachusetts doesn't try to use her last name in the game. Interestingly, you can be John Gay but not John Dykes. Better hope no Asians with the last names of "Wang" or "Dong" try to be a coach in TeamBuilder because that's just too bad.

I searched PeopleFinder.com and WhitePages.com to make sure there were people with these name so please don't think I am making these up but the following legitimate last names are a no go: Nipple (over 100 results returned); Titus (oh for heaven's sake!); Fag (three returns); Negron (over 100 results returned); and the list goes on. *sigh*

I find it interesting that they put up a disclaimer concerning the possibility of inappropriate content when you download a team built in TeamBuilder but then lock it down to the point where MANY legitimate names are unable to be entered to begin with. If you saw the disclaimer and downloaded the content anyway only to find it was truly inappropriate, wouldn't EA be covered? I am surprised many of these people didn't push a class action lawsuit for denying them the right to use their name in the game.

Then again, lawsuit abuse is a topic for a different day.