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Moms everywhere think Ohio State’s helmet stickers are marijuana leaves

Moms rule.

The Ohio State Buckeyes decorate their players’ helmets with buckeye leaves. If a player does really well, his lid will be covered in those stickers. It’s a longtime tradition.

National Championship - Oregon v Ohio State Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

It’s this, from a tree common in the Midwest and the state tree of Ohio.

USDA

Ohioans have been nicknamed “buckeyes” since the 1780s. So the Ohio team called the Buckeyes has buckeye leaves on its helmets. Reasonable.

I am here to alert you to a national trend that stretches back years: Moms across the nation think Ohio State’s helmet stickers are marijuana leaves.

During the Buckeyes’ Week 5 2018 game against Penn State, someone on Twitter’s mom reportedly asked, “Is that marijuana on his helmet?” The tweet raised my eyebrow.

It turns out moms everywhere have had the same thought. These observations have been being made since at least 2010, and probably well before Twitter’s time. I’m just going to get out of the way and present these to you in chronological order, and you need to trust me that they are not even close to a full sample of the global inventory:

But on at least one occasion, a mom’s set someone straight about this.

Moms rule.