Saturdays may be for the boys, but Thursdays are apparently for filing lawsuits.
Barstool Sports founder Dave "El Presidente" Portnoy and his legal team have filed a "cease and desist" against the NFL for its recent line of merchandise featuring the tagline "Sundays are for the [NFL Team Name]" for all 32 of the league's franchises, which Portnoy claimed was an obvious infringement of Barstool's "SATURDAYS ARE FOR THE BOYS ®" trademark (protected by U.S. Registration No. 5,330,739).
Portnoy included the cease and desist letter, which was written by attorney Jesse Saivar of the Greenberg Glusker law firm in Los Angeles, in a blog post on Thursday entitled "Dear Roger Goodell...You've Been Served," which specifically mentions the Dallas Cowboys t-shirt that blatantly included "the Boys" in the tagline and was subsequently the only item pulled from the NFL Shop website.
"It has come to our attention that the National Football League and/or NFL Shop (collectively, the "NFL"), in a possible collaboration with Fanatics, Inc., has developed, manufactured and offered for sale a line of apparel items featuring the phrase "Sundays Are For The [NFL Team Name]" (the "Infringing Apparel"). Initially included among the Infringing Apparel was a Dallas Cowboys shirt which reads "Sundays Are For The Boys."
The letter notes that Barstool "aggressively polices its rights and has taken action against third party infringement of this registered brand on numerous occasions" and provided the league with a list of three demands:
(1) Immediately recall all units of the Infringing Apparel from NFL Shop, the Fanatics store and any other retail stores selling the Infringing Apparel, and cease and desist all further manufacture, distribution and/or sale of the Infringing Apparel;
(2) Within ten (10) days of this letter, destroy all Infringing Apparel and provide us with a certificate of destruction reflecting the same; and
(3) Within ten (10) days of this letter, provide complete and accurate details of all sales of the Infringing Apparel to date, including copies of all invoices, an accounting of the total number of units of Infringing Apparel distributed and/or sold to date, and the total amount of money the NFL has received from the sale and/or distribution of the Infringing Apparel.
Prior to Thursday's letter, Portnoy told TMZ Sports that he planned on taking legal action against the league after the release of the merchandise line.
The cease and desist letter is the latest in Portnoy's long-standing feud with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
The Boston native and diehard New England Patriots fan led a protest against Goodell and the league during the Deflategate Trial, which led to his and several other Barstool employees' arrest in 2015.
Portnoy also released a series of merchandise depicting Goodell with a clown nose, which included t-shirts — one in which he wore during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers — and hand towels, which he and other volunteers handed out to fans prior to the Patriots' home opener in September with the commissioner in attendance.
(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
It's worth noting that Goodell claimed he didn't know anything about Barstool Sports during his "State of the League" press conference in February, despite the league's decision to ban the website from Radio Row during the Super Bowl.
FanBuzz's Take
Come on, Rog. Even if you're not an "Award Winning Listener" of Pardon My Take, the No. 1 ranked sports podcast, viewer of Portnoy's pizza reviews or any other content, there's no way you don't at least have Barstool or El Presidente on your radar.
Also, EVERYONE has heard that phrase.
Well, except maybe Andrew Luck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHSJeFmND7w
