NFL players suffer impersonation often

[Diomedes]

nytimes
that's a subscription only article.  use bugmenot if you want to access it without signing up.  I post the link only for reference, the article is pasted below:

September 14, 2005
To N.F.L. Players, Imitation Isn't a Form of Flattery at All
By KAREN CROUSE
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y., Sept. 12 - The guy pretending to be Curtis Martin didn't wear a No. 28 green-and-white jersey or write checks to help poor people get through the month.

He was dressed in silken threads and spent an eventful night this summer at a nightclub in Pittsburgh, Martin's hometown, opening a tab in Martin's name and trying to attract pretty women by passing himself off as the National Football League's reigning rushing champion.

"One of my best friends walked in the club and someone told him that I was just in there," Martin said, recounting the story recently after a Jets practice at Hofstra. "He said: 'No, that can't be. He's in New York.' "

As Martin found, football players are easy targets for impersonators because their names are usually more recognizable than their faces.

"Most people can't tell what we look like under all that equipment," said Martin, whose impersonator was unmasked with the help of a surveillance tape and the man's own sloppiness; he paid for his bar tab using a credit card issued in his real name.

The public got a glimpse of the dark side of the N.F.L. spotlight in July when another man, Brian Jackson, 31, was arrested in Pittsburgh on harassment and criminal mischief charges that he impersonated Steelers quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger and Brian St. Pierre while wooing women last fall.

The police said Jackson continued to harass the women after his deception was uncovered. In a plea-bargain deal in August, he was cited for disorderly conduct.

This sort of deception happens more than anybody knows, said Milton Ahlerich, the N.F.L.'s vice president for security. This year Ahlerich's office has investigated 23 cases involving impersonation. (Identity theft is a separate category.)

In 2004, 37 such cases were brought to the attention of the league office. That was five fewer than in 2003. How many more cases go unreported? As Martin said, he would have been none the wiser about his impersonator if not for his friend's fortuitous timing.

"Frankly, we don't know what we don't know," Ahlerich said.

Ahlerich, a 25-year veteran of the F.B.I., described a recent case that landed on his desk in which a man, claiming to be various N.F.L. players, duped four people in four cities out of $500 apiece with a story about losing his billfold and needing money to fly home to tend to a family emergency.

Each time he promised to wire the money as soon as he arrived at his destination. When he didn't, one of the victims contacted the N.F.L. The perpetrator was caught, Ahlerich said.

Law enforcement officials can be reluctant to take on impersonation cases unless a financial loss has occurred. Many times, the only thing the N.F.L. security officials can do is deliver a stern lecture to the guilty parties.

The gall of the impersonators is matched by the gullibility of their victims. "People want to believe they're in the presence of celebrity," Ahlerich said. "It makes them feel good to say, 'I hung out with so-and-so.' "

Martin said it pained him to see how easily his name could be hijacked. The impersonator in the nightclub happened to be an acquaintance. Martin, 32, who doesn't drink or smoke, admonished the man by telephone.

"I told him: 'You can steal money from me. You can steal material things. But don't mess with my name,' " Martin said. "I've worked too hard for it, you know? I don't want nobody out there representing me the wrong way."

Jets cornerback Ty Law's experience with impersonators has ranged from the comical to the criminal. He can laugh about the time when he played for New England that he was summoned to a Jaguar dealership to take delivery of a car he hadn't ordered and, upon introducing himself to the sales representative, was told, "You're not Ty Law."

Law is less sanguine recalling the time someone purporting to be him managed to withdraw money from his bank account in Pittsburgh.

"He went to two branches within 10 to 15 minutes of each other and took me for about 20 grand," said Law, who played 10 seasons with the Patriots before signing with the Jets in July. "It was an hour and a half from where I'm from. I'd never been to the branches in my life. He had a forged driver's license from Ohio. He got me."

Law said the authorities were able to nab the impersonator because he carried the celebrity charade a little too far, and his antics were captured by surveillance cameras.

"He was taking pictures and signing autographs and he was right there on camera, and so that's how we caught him," said Law, who turned to N.F.L. security for help.

A two-year investigation led to an arrest in the case of Jonathan Hoskins of Pittsburgh, who was later sentenced to a year in jail.

"He didn't look anything like me," Law said of Hoskins. Law described Hoskins, when he was caught on the surveillance cameras, as wearing a thick gold chain that hung almost to his navel. "That's not even my style, you know what I mean?" Law said. He added that when somebody purporting to be an athlete calls attention to himself in public, it's almost a dead giveaway that that person is not who he says he is, because most players are trying to avoid attention, not attract it.

People trying to bask in the N.F.L.'s reflected glory just don't zero in on players, or on a full-blown assumption of somebody else's identity. A friend of Sal Alosi, the Jets' assistant strength coach, once struck up a conversation at a night spot with a man who identified himself as the assistant strength coach with the Jets. He produced a business card that identified him as such.

The friend forwarded the card on to Alosi, asking him, "Do you know this guy?" Alosi did not, and he passed the card on to Steve Yarnell, the team's senior director for security, who gave the information to local law enforcement officials.

At a grocery store near the Long Island home of Jets Coach Herman Edwards lurks a woman who has passed herself off as Edwards's wife, Lia.

"Lia told me and I said, 'What?' " Edwards said. "I guess it's happened a couple of times."

He laughed. "Some people get enamored with a person's lifestyle," Edwards said, "or try to use maybe some of his notoriety to their best interests."

Occasionally an impersonator will be caught red-faced. One day during Doug Jolley's rookie season with the Raiders, he drove to the Oakland airport to pick up friends. He arrived bearing a football that his teammate Jerry Rice had signed at that day's practice.

"I picked my buddies up, I showed them the ball and then they went back to get their luggage," Jolley said. "So I was sitting in my car and somebody came up to me and said, 'How did you get that ball signed?' "

As Jolley recounted the story, the rest of the encounter went this way:

"Sometimes you can get things signed after practice," Jolley said.

The stranger switched gears. "Actually," he said, "I have a good friend who plays for the Raiders."

"Wow!" Jolley replied. "Who?"

"Doug Jolley."

After Jolley stopped laughing, he said: "Dude, that's me. I'm Doug Jolley."

"Oh, well, I go to B.Y.U. and you know one of my friends," the stranger said before slinking off.
I don't think anyone is impersonating Calvin Armstrong.

[MURP]

dont anyone even say it. 

[Diomedes]

MURP has been known to impersonate Lavar Arrington.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

dont anyone even say it. 

Like anyone would impersonate you, Josh.  You suck.

[Tomahawk]

I don't think anyone is impersonating Calvin Armstrong.

Not yet anyway.

[Wingspan]

it seems to happen in pittsburgh a lot.

[General_Failure]

dont anyone even say it.

Can we say we saw you carrying Koy's x-box two years ago?

[MURP]

MURP has been known to impersonate Lavar Arrington.

[Geowhizzer]

it seems to happen in pittsburgh a lot.

What else is there to do out there?