Johnny Manziel aka Johnny Football suit and intellectual property rights in a nickname

Johnny Manziel would not be the first to file a claim based on a nickname though he appears to be the most recent.  As often happens, the coverage of this lawsuit (on the link below) does not use the term “Right of Publicity:”  http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8977054/lawsuit-filed-claims-johnny-football-infringement