Nintendo patents football controller, looks a lot like a football

At some point, it really behooves a gamer to ask the question, "How many peripherals is enough peripherals?" The Wii remote is a pretty sweet piece of technology. We get that. The nunchuk adds some much-needed flexibility, sure. MotionPlus adds some extra sensitivity for 1:1 play. Okay, we all want that, right? But a football?

Siliconera reports that Nintendo vice president of R&D, Howard Cheng, has submitted a patent for a Wii football peripheral. Specifically, it's a football shaped shell for the Wii remote with different variations, like the tweaked MotionPlus version featured above. The patent cites different examples of how to use the peripheral. Obviously, throwing motions are mentioned. The Wii remote could also detect body motion and interpret it as "running." Call us cynics, but can't the Wii remote do all of that without a squishy football wrapped around it?

Then again, it's probably awesome for Punch-OutII.