Of the ones mentioned so far, I'm most partial to "The Marks Brothers." But in all honesty, my favorite one is incredibly unimaginative. My favorite nickname was "Zonk" ... which is simply a shorter form of the last name of Larry Csonka. But I liked it so much because the name "Zonk" makes me visualize a ginormous wrecking ball that literally embodies the irresistible force that never met an immovable object that could stop him ... and that's precisely how Larry Csonka played ... like a bull charging through a cage of balsa wood and sneering at the sheer stupidity of someone who thought that balsa wood could ever contain him. As a runner he used to run out of his way to punish defenders ... his running style was brutality, not elegance or athleticism.
Who knows, maybe I just heard the way the announcers said "Zonk" and that is where I gained the image, but wow, it always seemed so right. Probably for the same reason or as some lingering piece of that image is one of the reasons why I always liked Gronk, who similarly is an irresistible force and it is simply a shortening of his name, Rob Gronkowski. There is a basic savagery that the game of football includes ... and once in a while, there is a guy who takes that to another level, and they usually get names that describe the action, like "Beastmode" for Marshawn Lynch, and then there are the guys whose name already sounds like that action ... like Zonk.
Every time I see
@BlueFin 's avatar of Larry Csonka I get shivers, because I can visualize Larry Csonka kindly and gently relating the sheer joy he had playing the game with stalwart friends who were willing to lay their lives on the line for him. Larry would do the same for them in a second. And as he tells the story, there is not a single inkling of violence, anger or mayhem in his voice or manner. But still ... I know that below the surface is a raging storm of destruction and mayhem that exists at his fingertips ... and if he ever wanted to smash everything in sight ............... he could do it.