This is great! After years and years of listening to NFL commentators whine every year about the difficulties of having to deal with Roman numerals every time some major NFC AFC final comes around, we read today that one of our Latin-loving-recent-draft-picks will be the first to sport Roman numerals on the back of his jersey:

• What the MCLXIX? RG3 first NFL player to wear Roman numerals (Fan IQ)

… a bit more detail on why this is a big thing (on the NFL side of things):

• Robert Griffin III first professional athlete to wear Roman numerals on jersey? (CBS)

Of course, it’s a pretty simple set (Griffin III, just like he had at Baylor). The real triumph, of course, would be if he could have a big X on his jersey, rather than the fabrically-inefficient 10.

On RGIII’s Latin skillset:

• Robert Griffin III and His Latin Teacher ~ ICWUDT!!

Whatever the case, I’ll now happily refer to him as RGIII rather than RG3 and for those sports commentators (and others) who struggle with Roman numerals, there is a Dictionary of Roman Numerals available. Now if I can only figure out what the significance of MCLXIX might be (some English/Irish thing?)