Daily Fail: NFL Says We Dat Say You Can't Print Them Shirts That Say Who Dat

Charlie Klein

Every once in a while you run into something in the sports world that is just so ridiculously stupid that it makes you wonder how people make money running sports at all. It came to my attention yesterday that the NFL is actually attempting to prevent street vendors in Miami from selling shirts that display the phrase "Who Dat" in conjunction with the New Orleans Saints' fleur-de-lis.

This merits the characterization of "fail" for two reasons:

1) The fleur-de-lis is not an image that originated with the NFL and the league therefore has no legal right to claim copyright infringement on shirts that simply show a fleur-de-lis with the words "Who Dat."

2) Attempting to ban something that has become the catchphrase of one of contemporary sports' greatest mantras which encapsulates the struggles and successes of the New Orleans region following Katrina is worse PR than Gilbert Arenas claiming he didn't see what was so wrong with bringing firearms into the Verizon Center.

The NFL claims that these cease and desist orders were "narrowly issued." Jeffrey Miller, vice president of government relations and public policy for the league characterized the letters as "Challenging the sale of products bearing the fleur-de-lis and Who Dat marks only when these products contain or advertised using other trademarks or identifiers of the Saints."

Louisiana Senator David Vitter (R) wrote a letter to NFL commish Roger Goodell informing the organization that he intended to create a batch of "Who Dat" shirts and invited the league to sue him. "This letter will also serve as formal legal notice that I am having shirts that say "WHO DAT say we can't print shirts that say Who Dat!" for widespread sale in commerce. Please either drop your ridiculous position or sue me."

While Mr. Vitter and I certainly do not agree on much politically, he's got my vote for best constituency service of the month.