As my current OTB and former Troy colleague Steven Taylor can attest, teaching American government in the late 1990s was an especial challenge because of the Monica Lewinski scandal. Whatever one’s view of the politics of the matter, one thing was inescapable: pretty much any discussion would result in multiple unintentional double entendres. It got old.
Apparently, although the scandal is some sixteen years behind us, that particular effect lingers. Ha’Sean Clinton-Dix was born December 21, 1992, a few weeks after Bill Clinton was elected president, and hadn’t even started school when Matt Drudge broke the news. You can guess what comes next.
AL.com (“Worst part about being named HaHa Clinton-Dix? ‘The whole President Clinton thing with Monica Lewinsky’“):
The question came up often throughout his three-year career at Alabama, but HaHa Clinton-Dix never took it in this direction.
Speaking Sunday at the NFL Combine, Clinton-Dix was asked about his unique nickname. Specifically, he was asked about the “worst thing” about the first name “HaHa.”
Turns out it’s not just his first name that grabs jokesters’ attention.
“The whole President Clinton thing with Monica Lewinsky,” he said with a smile. “I didn’t know too much about that, but that’s pretty much what it was.”
One of the top-ranked safeties in the draft didn’t elaborate any further.
Clinton-Dix’s birth name is Ha’Sean, but it was often pronounced wrong by those outside of the family, he said. His grandmother started calling him “HaHa” at the age of three, and it ultimately stuck.
Clinton-Dix is expected to be picked high in the first round of the NFL draft. So he’ll at least get paid better than Steven and I did when we were having to endure those unfortunate connotations.
