DAVIE, Fla. -- Minkah Fitzpatrick never expected trademarking a nickname to get so much vulgar backlash.
Two days after news broke that Fitzpatrick had filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office last week for "FitzMagic," he expressed anger with keyboard warriors who attacked him and his family, and offered the nickname to Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Ryan Fitzpatrick if it came to that.
"If he wants the name, he can take it if he wants," Minkah Fitzpatrick said of Ryan Fitzpatrick (no relation). "He's a great football player. If he wants it, contact me and my people and he can have it if he wants it."
Several people, likely believing that Ryan Fitzpatrick, who is older, was the true owner of "FitzMagic," began attacking Minkah Fitzpatrick and his mother via social media. Minkah Fitzpatrick's mother responded with multiple tweets. One remains up showing proof of the family making "FitzMagic" jerseys for Minkah while he was at Alabama.
Nobody said when one word about someone else's name nor did it when we filed . So stop the nonsense pic.twitter.com/0Lh4gELWas
— minknmelissa (@minknmelissa) September 18, 2018
"It kind of upset me a whole lot because it's my mom," Fitzpatrick said. "I don't really want her to be involved in anything that is directed toward me. Anybody is going to be protective over their mothers, but she's very protective of myself. She's seen some of the stuff that's come my way. I've dealt with it before when I played in a big stage in college. I've had my fair share of mistakes where I got that type of backlash. So I kind of knew how to handle it. She never been through anything like that. She was being a protective mother, doing what every mother would do and protecting her son."
Minkah Fitzpatrick said that he was called "FitzMagic" for the first time before high school and that the nickname became public when somebody wrote an article titling him that as he was leaving high school. He wanted to take the step to trademark "FitzMagic" while at Alabama, but NCAA rules prevented him from using his name for profit.
Visibly upset Wednesday, Fitzpatrick said he will use this as motivation. He deleted his social media apps off his phone recently after the large amount of what he called "very unnecessary comments directed toward myself and my family."
"It's not really any adversity. Just tweets, comments," said Fitzpatrick, the Dolphins' pick at No. 11 in April's draft. "Nothing compared to what me and my family been through before, so I kind of laugh at it and use it as fuel."
"They want me to earn my nickname? That's what I'm going to do. I've been playing pretty well for a rookie my first two games. I'm going to continue to progress and focus on football. I'm not worried about silly nicknames or nothing like that. I'm just worried about being the best possible version of Minkah Fitzpatrick and help my team win games."
Ryan Fitzpatrick, who leads the NFL in passing and has led the Bucs to a 2-0 record thus far, has not been made available for comment yet. Minkah has not heard from Ryan or his team yet.
Minkah Fitzpatrick said that he plans to use the "FitzMagic" trademark for apparel and that an apparel line is "in the works."