Saints Merchandise Toes Copyright Line

NEW ORLEANS -- We've all seen them, those enterprising individuals who camp out at sporting events and concerts and sell unlicensed bootleg merchandise for much cheaper than what's available legitimately. And usually, the homemade merch is hilariously bad, tacky screen-printed designs on t-shirts that feel like they're made out of thin paper towel, mostly only available in XXL (see right for an awesome example).

This phenomenon has always intrigued me: Who buys these things?

In New Orleans the answer is, apparently, almost everybody. Because despite a mini-controversy in which the NFL tried to crack down on unlicensed merchandise using the "Who Dat" refrain so ubiquitous in the city, and then backtracked to state they'd only be cracking down on merchandise that pairs the phrase with NFL trademarked terms and logos, stores are taking advantage of the leeway generously and creatively, selling t-shirts that get the point across while side-stepping anything that can legitimately get them in any legal hot water.

And they're selling. I've seen far more of these on people than any jersey or NFL licensed t-shirts. Below, a sampling.

Note the key missing terms -- in the first, "Black & Gold" replaces "Saints," and they're going to a Bowl of some sort, but it doesn't specify. The second also references the Super Bowl (via the roman numerals), but doesn't mention the game by name. The third made me chuckle the most -- asking "Who Dat Say Gonna Beat Dem?," leaving "Saints" off the end as the famous lyric goes, is the equivalent of singing "Hey Jude" but cutting out all mentions of "Jude." And the last also excludes the term "Saints," and though the mini jerseys have the numbers of popular players -- from left to right: Jeremy Shockey, Reggie Bush, Drew Brees, Jonathan Vilma and Darren Sharper -- they all say "New Orleans" in lieu of the actual player names.

I asked a bunch of the store owners and clerks whether this merchandise -- which is created by local t-shirt makers -- was cleaned up as a response to the NFL's threats over a week ago, they all insisted that this was all they were selling all along. (A couple of stores carried decidedly unlicensed Drew Brees jerseys that were obvious fakes, but when asked all claimed the jerseys were above board and they were doing nothing wrong.)

"I think a bunch of store owners basically said 'Screw that,'" one owner told me with regards to the NFL's threats.