SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Shock have a wide receiver that has a name almost exactly the same as arguably the most famous poet.
Edgar Allen Poe is his name, but the middle name is spelled slightly different from the poet, as the poet's middle name is spelled Allan.
His grandfather is a poetry buff and gave the name to the player's dad. His dad passed it on to him.
"The difference is on purpose," he said about the difference in the middle name. "My grandfather always said in case my father did get famous he wanted to be able to delineate between which Edgar Allen Poe you were talking about."
Poe says his name stirs up quite the chatter.
"Most people don't believe me, I have to show them some ID," he said. "It takes a little bit more of a conversation, but it is a good conversation starter, so I use it to my advantage sometimes, especially with some of the ladies and stuff."
His father had him read some of Poe's work growing up so that he'd be familiar with it.
KREM 2's Karthik Venkataraman played a game with Poe, in which the receiver guessed if Kanye West or Edgar Allan Poe said a quote. That can be seen in the video at the top of the article.
The Spokane Shock host the Massachusetts Pirates in the Spokane Arena on Saturday. That game will also air on KREM 2's sister station KSKN at 7:05 p.m.