That’s the question I’m asking myself today. I’ve spent the past couple of days in Washington D.C. for Book Expo America. My five-year-old son is a football fanatic, so whenever I’m in a town with an N.F.L. team, I try to bring home a souvenir for him. Today, I went to a huge souvenir store in D.C., with thousands of shirts, hats, keychains, etc. There was a great variety of very very cheap shirts and hats sporting the logos of the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the President of the United States, Air Force One, etc. But there didn’t seem to be a single item of Washington Redskins paraphernalia. I asked at the counter and got a kind of fishy eye and then a brusque shake of the head. Which made me wonder: did the clerk think that, perhaps, I was from the N.F.L.’s licensing division and was trying to find out if she had any unlicensed Redskins stuff? It didn’t seem to make sense that the store wouldn’t carry any Redskins paraphernalia — they had everything else you could imagine, including shirts for the Washington Nationals and the Georgetown Hoyas. I know, I know, it’s baseball season and not football season, but still, the Nationals are a new and terrible team while the Redskins are a venerable and good team. And this didn’t look like a store that rotated its stock very often. So this made me think: is it possible that stores like this (and/or their suppliers) are not afraid of selling knockoff U.S. Government merchandise or knockoff MLB merchandise but that they are afraid of selling knockoff NFL merchandise? Is it possible that the N.F.L. is more feared, even in Washington, than the U.S. Government?
Is the N.F.L. More Feared Than the U.S. Government?
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Was there any Washington Wizards merchandise? If not, the shop may have just carried Nats items along with the government apparel you mentioned. However, you do raise an interesting (yet very speculative) point.
Was there any Washington Wizards merchandise? If not, the shop may have just carried Nats items along with the government apparel you mentioned. However, you do raise an interesting (yet very speculative) point.
Mr. Dubner,
The NFL is the best marketed entertainment product today. Movie ticket sales are down, baseball attendance is lower, and the NHL can not get a TV contract outside of OLN. But the NFL is at an all time high with franchise worth and TV contracts approaching the billion dollar mark.
I absolutely loved “Freakonomics” and if Mr. Leavitt would ever do an economic analysis of professional sports (if he hasn’t already) I would be very interested in reading it.
I would love to see a prisoner’s dilemma game theory analysis of why Houston passed on Reggie Bush. Or how Matt Leinart went from a potential #1 last year to a number 10 pick this year.
Mr. Dubner,
The NFL is the best marketed entertainment product today. Movie ticket sales are down, baseball attendance is lower, and the NHL can not get a TV contract outside of OLN. But the NFL is at an all time high with franchise worth and TV contracts approaching the billion dollar mark.
I absolutely loved “Freakonomics” and if Mr. Leavitt would ever do an economic analysis of professional sports (if he hasn’t already) I would be very interested in reading it.
I would love to see a prisoner’s dilemma game theory analysis of why Houston passed on Reggie Bush. Or how Matt Leinart went from a potential #1 last year to a number 10 pick this year.
The real issue is that the logos of the federal government are in the public domain. There’s nothing illegal about selling “knock-off” FBI merchandise.
The real issue is that the logos of the federal government are in the public domain. There’s nothing illegal about selling “knock-off” FBI merchandise.
Or perhaps they were just sold out… lol
Or perhaps they were just sold out… lol