Pierre Garcon Is Suing FanDuel For Using His Likeness Even Though He Was Promoting FanDuel A Year Ago

Statement from Pierre Garçon regarding his lawsuit against FanDuel:

"I am bringing this lawsuit against FanDuel for using my name, image, and likeness in both daily fantasy contests and through advertising on TV ads and infomercials. FanDuel has taken the liberty to engaged in these actions without my consent and without proper licensing rights. As a result of these activities, FanDuel daily fantasy contests have shown increasing revenues leading to large profits. Therefore, on behalf of myself as well as any other players who are being treated unjustly, I chose to file a complaint.

"I have been advised by my attorneys not to speak any further on the topic while the case is pending. Any other questions regarding this matter can be addressed to my agent, Brad Cicala."


Annnnnnd the punchline.......

whoops. https://t.co/3bY68NozWA pic.twitter.com/ixysMrx5Jy

— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) October 30, 2015

Hmm, what could force such a drastic change of heart? I mean, one minute Pierre is inviting everyone to play in his own personal weekly fantasy game, and the next he’s trying to take them for all their worth? I don’t think FanDuel has changed it’s business plan. I am not exactly sure how the law works, but I think Garcon’s endorsement of FanDuel is enough for me to reasonably doubt the legitimacy of his current cause. Listen, I don’t care about the logistics of players being used in daily fantasy commercials. I don’t want to get into whether or not the players deserve to be compensated for the use of their name and likeness in a business that’s making a lot of people a pretty decent profit.

I guess my question is why is Pierre Garcon the one doing the suing? And why now? Could it be that his corresponding salary on an app that he used to back on social media isn’t to his liking? Sounds petty, but athletes are petty. Shit, we are all petty. Remember when you were a kid and you created yourself in sports games? Did you give yourself reasonable attributes? Fuck no you didn’t. 99’s across the motherfucking board. Why would a professional athlete be any different? Garcon was putting money in their pocket and they were taking the likeness of money out of his virtual representation. Just constantly reconstructing his fake, conceptual contract without even so much as notifying him. Sure, given Pierre’s stats he doesn’t deserve to be going for $7,500 on a week to week basis, but when he stakes his reputation to your brand then you should probably know that he expects to. Pierre Garcon is supposed to be #1 wide receiver and I can only imagine his usage rate on FanDuel is that of a backup tight end. This lawsuit wasn’t a result of him feeling entitled to the money made off his name, because there literally hasn’t been a single dollar made by a person that used Pierre Garcon. I should probably be part of FanDuel’s legal team with that defense.  Anyway, this lawsuit was created out of spite. Spite resulting from FanDuel assigning a rational monetary approximation to a guy that hasn’t topped 75 yards in a game this year. I want to say it’s a frivolous lawsuit, but it’s a frivolous lawsuit we would all try to serve if a business we were previously glorifying wasn’t glorifying us.