Don't Play Dirty with @FleurtyGirl

It all started with a tweet this morning:

huh? The NFL told Fleurty Girl they couldn't sell their great #WHODAT shirt?  I immediately had flashbacks to my Radio Shack days in the early 1980s, when Radio Shack sued Auto Shack (and won because they sold car audio), and also sued Peanut Shack (and lost, because it was a stupid idea). 

And of all people, Fleurty Girl, a t-shirt shop uptown on Oak Street.  With all the knock-off merchandise sold in the French Quarter year-round, why pick on a small operation on the opposite side of town, in what is by and large a shopping district frequented almost exclusively by locals?

Let's back up a moment, though.  This is the offending t-shirt:

It's on display outside the Fleurty Girl store.  Look a bit more closely at the design:

A gold fleur-de-Lis that doesn't look at all, at all, like the BLACK fleur-de-lis that the Saints use:

The fleur de list that Fleurty Girl uses is more like the ones you find on the flag of the French Monarchy, early incarnations of the English royal arms, and the three on the flag of the city of New Orleans. Maybe the NFL can sue HM The Queen. They can try to sue SeeRay, but the city's still paying pre-storm judgements. I also doubt they'll be sending C&D demands to kingcake bakeries, either.

As for the term "Who Dat," the NFL has no more claim to that than I have to the George Halas trophy.

Fleurty Girl says they're going to agree to the NFL's demands. Probably a good move, even though there's no shortage of lawyers willing to take their side on this. No worries, though, since their other "Who Dat" shirt is not a problem for the NFL:

In other words, all that was gained by someone dropping a dime on Fleurty Girl was to boost their public profile and sales.

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