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Jayden Daniels jerseys remain on sale at LSU despite cease-and-desist letter
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BATON ROUGE — A cease-and-desist letter sent to LSU by representatives for Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels is raising questions about the university's right to sell merchandise tied to his name and likeness.
Daniels' representatives sent the letter last week, claiming LSU no longer has the right to use his name or likeness. The letter followed the football team's decision to allow sophomore cornerback DJ Pickett to wear number 5 this upcoming season.
Despite the letter, No. 5 jerseys with Daniels' name on the back remain on the shelves of at least one LSU campus sports shop.
"It appears, assuming that the contract between the two of them is what's going to govern the relationship," Attorney David Fleshman said, "if these are officially licensed Jayden Daniels number 5 jerseys, that LSU may need to reconsider and may need to look at that."
Attorney David Fleshman says the cease-and-desist letter is not legally enforceable. It puts LSU on notice that Daniels is challenging the university's right to use his name, image and likeness.
Fleshman says the key issue in the dispute revolves around how LSU uses Daniels' name, image and likeness, not his number. "There's certain things that, whether you have an agreement, LSU has an agreement with Jayden or not, that they can do," Fleshman said. "They can always refer to him as the Heisman. He's a Heisman winner. The question becomes really, how are they using his NIL? Are they using it for commercial purposes? Or are they using it for historical purposes? And that line is where it can get gray."
That distinction matters for local retailers too. At Red Stick Sports, retail manager Joshua Wilson says the store avoids putting current players' names on jerseys because players can change numbers or leave a team.
"Merchandise that sits around is not making any profit," Wilson said. "So we try to get them out as quickly as possible so we can get the new stuff to come in and everything like that."
Fleshman does not expect the dispute to end up in court. He says LSU can continue to reference Daniels' accomplishments while he still controls his legal NIL rights.
"LSU understands what their rights are and they're certainly not going to move forward doing anything that could jeopardize them to any sort of lawsuit," Fleshman said.
Daniels released a statement last week saying he hopes his camp and LSU can resolve the matter privately.
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