Big Frick Dot Com

Talk about a buzz kill.

You remember the NFL. The National Football League that deemed a conservative talk show host as unfit for minority ownership of a team because he dared give his personal opinion about a certain black quarterback being overrated. The same NFL that only days later decided it was indeed appropriate for that supposedly besmirched black quarterback to be backed up by a different black quarterback who had just been released from prison, having served time as a result of his conviction for his admitted involvement in the heinous, despicable activity of dog fighting.

The same NFL whose ranks of players include some of the most downright unsavory characters outside of prison or the NBA, but who are still capable of earning millions anyway because they are protected like show ponies by this mega-billion dollar business.

The same NFL that treated the nation to a Super Bowl halftime show that included Justin Timberlake having simulated sex with Janet Jackson for what seemed like an eternity until climaxing with the boob shot heard round the world (which actually, in my estimation, was preferable to the previous year’s halftime when they had Brittany Spears singing with Aerosmith).

Yea, those guys. Those bastions of good taste and dedicated fan friendly environmentalists.

Up to this point perhaps there were only a handful of us who saw the blatant hypocrisy in the organization known as the NFL, but no more. I feel certain that in their latest court fight most of the country will agree that the NFL, under the leadership of their commissioner Roger Goodell, has taken it one step too far one time too often.

Far be it from me to disparage any organization for making money or protecting their products. I am a capitalist through and through and believe that businesses are in business to make money. Only successful businesses can be successful community servants. But Mr. Goodell and his band of merry legal eagles have crossed the line of protecting their product and moved into sheer power-hungry lunacy.

The NFL last week, through their attorneys, filed an injunction preventing any private label souvenir sales for the New Orleans Saints that bare the tagline “WHO DAT”. According to the filing the NFL says they own the expression “WHO DAT” and are concerned that any tee shirts or other memorabilia emblazoned with that expression, even without any mention of the Saints team itself, may cause a consumer to be misled into believing it is an NFL sanctioned piece of New Orleans history.

Whooeee cuzin, dat some big ting dat da bull he walk aaawaaay from I gaar-own-tee.

After suffering through countless losing seasons the diehard fans of the New Orleans Saints finally have something to really cheer about and the NFL comes in and throws their legal wet blanket on the proceedings.

The press is all agog with the story of a team coming from a city that was devastated by hurricane Katrina, and playing in a dome that was the scene of hopeless despair, has risen to the height of Super Bowl contender. Katrina certainly plays a part in this story but even without the hurricane this is an unconscionably excessive use of legal force on the everyday fan of this Super Bowl virgin team.

For the first time in the history of the New Orleans Saints the fans of the WHO DAT nation have something to celebrate and the NFL now informs them that the tag line they have been using does not belong to them. What next? A user fee every time someone says it in the stands?

Mr. Goodell needs to look in the mirror and say “Who dat be the biggest a hole outside Washington DC?”

I bet they can answer that question on Bourbon Street in a New Orleans second.

I gaar-own-tee.

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