A New Orleans store displays merchandise with “Who Dat!” – the rallying cry of Saints fans. The NFL acknowledged Tuesday it doesn’t have exclusive rights to the slogan or the fleur-de-lis symbol.
The New Orleans Saints are underdogs going into Sunday’s Super Bowl. But as the spat over “Who Dat?” proves, underdogs can sometimes bite back.
Who Dat? – for those of you who’ve been napping – is the rallying cry of Saints fans, otherwise known as the Who Dat Nation. As the Saints marched through the playoffs, the slogan has become a lucrative one for shops and companies that sell shirts, caps and other Saints paraphernalia.
Wanting a piece of the action, the NFL aggressively pursued a trademark of the Who Dat? and demanded that vendors stop selling Who Dat? merchandise not officially licensed by the NFL. One of those receiving a cease-and-desist letter was Lauren Thomas, owner of the Fleurty Girl T-shirt shop in New Orleans. Thanks to the NFL’s heavy-handed actions, Thom and Fleurty Girl suddenly became causes célèbres.
Louisiana politicians, ever quick to pounce on something that might distract voters from the generally dismal state of Louisiana, started beating up on the NFL. So did everyone else. Geez, NFL, didn’t New Orleans lose nearly everything in Katrina? Now you want to take away Who Dat?
On Tuesday, the NFL finally got smart. The league acknowledged it did not have exclusive rights to the Who Dat phrase or the fleur-de-lis symbol.
Score one for New Orleans.
No one owns “Who Dat.” Nor is anyone sure of the origin of the phrase. A minstrel song? Perhaps. A Southern University chant of the 1960s? Maybe. The debate rages. The ownership of “Who Dat” is now resolved, but not the question: “From Where Dat?”