Who are the real 'Smash and Dash'?

Will the real “Smash and Dash” please fess up?

After seeing signs in the stands from Monday night and hearing references about it regarding Carolina Panthers running backs DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, Tennessee Titans running back LenDale White said he became upset because the moniker is same one he says he coined for himself and teammate Chris Johnson back in October.

“Yeah, I was watching,” White said. “I was upset because I made that phrase up myself. I made that up. I don’t know about NFL Network and all these other guys. I heard somebody say like, ‘Batman and Robin.’ That’s cute and all that. If they want that name, they can have that name. But the ‘Smash and Dash’ is something I made up. If they want a nickname, I can nickname them, ‘Identity and Theft.’ I think they’ll run away with that.”

White and Johnson first unveiled the nickname after a record-setting rushing day of 332 yards against the Kansas City Chiefs back on Oct. 19. They have since had t-shirts made with caricatures of themselves that are being sold in area Kroger stores to raise money for charity.

And now, two of those shirts are headed to Charlotte, N.C., for Williams and Stewart to see, courtesy of White, who claims to have trademarked the phrase.

“We got a copyright and everything for it. I’ll make sure I show the documents, but it is trademarked and everything,” White said. “I don’t know if we’re going to take legal action or not.

“I’m think I’m going to definitely send them a couple of t-shirts, so they can hang them up and put ‘fraudulent activity’ on there somewhere, because I’ve been ‘swacced.’”

White went on to explain what that was, and even spelled it with a pair of Cs when asked.

“If y’all don’t know what that is, that is ‘swagger-jacked,’ and I can’t believe that happened. Somebody messed up my whole swag, and that ain’t cool,” White said.

The Panthers tandem apparently were tagged with the nickname after both Williams and Stewart went over 100 yards for the first time against the Detroit Lions on Nov. 16.

“They were yelling it up in the stands,” Williams told the Gaston Gazette. “It wasn’t anything we came up with.”

As for Johnson, the Dash part of the equation in the Titans’ version of the tandem, he is taking a much more low-key approach in the matter. In other words, hold the lawyers, please.

“I’m not really worried about it, because you don’t really know who made up the name. It probably could have been commentators, fans. … I’m not really worried about it,” said Johnson, who added that he is friends with Stewart, a fellow rookie first-round pick.

Still, he said he believes he and White fit the nickname better, simply because Stewart and Hall are both more size and speed combination backs.

“I would say we do, of course. We made it up,” Johnson said. “For those guys, ‘Thunder and Lightning.’ They can have ‘Thunder and Lightning.’ When you look at those guys, DeAngelo Williams is around 215, 217 and Stewart is right around 235, so both of those are big guys.”

As for the numbers, the Panthers duo has a slight edge statistically. Williams has rushed for 1,141 yards on 212 carries, while Stewart has added 699 yards on 142 attempts.

Johnson just went over the 1,000-yard mark last Sunday and has 1,094 yards on 222 attempts, while White had contributed 674 on 170 rushes.

When it comes to the nickname, though, White says, basically, finders’ keepers.

“If you go back and show me where they started calling those guys ‘Smash and Dash’ first, I’ll give them the name. I will sign it over to them,” White said. “If we were ‘Smash and Dash’ first, they should definitely pay for something, take us to dinner. I don’t know what it is.

“You don’t make that up halfway through the season. If you’ve calling yourself [that], why does it wait till week 15? You wait till week 15 to bring it out. That is phony. That is very phony.”

White does have some potential solutions to the dilemma, including bringing his rapper friend Snoop Dogg in to help out.

“I need to have Snoop Dogg make me a song for ‘Smash and Dash,’ and that’ll end it,” White said.

How about if the Titans and Panthers both reached the Super Bowl and settled it there?

“I have no problem with that. That would be the best thing ever to do,” White said.