Who dat lawsuit?

Posted at 3:13 PM on January 28, 2010 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

It was only a matter of time, perhaps, before the National Football League tried to muscle in and claim ownership of "Who Dat?", the chant that fans of the New Orleans Saints use to celebrate their team. It's short for the long version, "Who dat say dey gonna beat them Saints?"

Now, the NFL, which prohibits people from using Super Bowl (note: Super Bowl! Super Bowl! Super Bowl! Come and get me, coppers!) is turning its lawyers loose in New Orleans.

Says Elie Mystal at the "Above the Law" tabloid:

So let's be clear -- the NFL claims it owns a chant of ungrammatical pidgin English that can't even be pronounced properly without using a Bobby Boucher accent. The NFL doesn't have what they call "the social skills."

"The NFL has a curious way of crushing the life out of anything that could even slightly siphon a dollar away from their clever system of unlimited revenue potential and fixed labor costs," Mystal says.

The NFL may be on solid legal ground, but who wants to be the one to go tell these people?

Just in case the Vikings ever get far enough for it to matter, we should figure out who owns "Skol Vikings?"

---

Comments (3)

They call it the "No Fun League" for a reason.

Posted by JackU | January 29, 2010 12:42 PM

---

I am new to the phrase/chant myself. But I assume it grew out of the passion of a fan and his friends and spiraled from there If that's so, then neither the team, and certainly not the NFL had anything to do with creating it.

How's that for a low-risk high profit revenue stream. Unfortunately it has a chilling effect on fan innovation. Or to put it another way, it sucks all the fun out of making your own sign starting your own chant and cheering on your own team in any game, including the ...

Super Bowl! Super Bowl! Superbowl! Take that, NFL.

Posted by JP | January 31, 2010 9:24 AM

---

I am very confused as to how the NFL has the gall to claim ownership of a phrase that has been chanted by Southern HBCU'S for decades.
I think the funds should be frozen and distributed to the struggling Southern HBCU's and not the greed of the NFL.
Negro dialect that has been chanted for generations at Southern HBCU'S (HISTORICAL BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES)

Posted by oclaybor | February 8, 2010 3:22 PM

---

Post a comment

The following HTML tags are allowed in your comments:
+ Bold: <b>Text</b>
+ Italic: <i>Text</i>
+ Link: <a href="http://url" target="_blank">Link</a>
Fields marked with * are required.

Name*:

E-mail Address*:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments*:

Comment Preview appears above this form upon pressing the "preview" button. Edit your comment and press "preview" again, until you are satisfied with your comment.

Your comment may not appear on the blog until several minutes after it was submitted.

• E-mail this page
• Print this page
• Tweet this page
• Share this

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories