Less than an hour after news broke Wednesday that New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton had been suspended for the entire upcoming season for his involvement in a bounty scandal that has sent shockwaves through the Who Dat Nation, College District owner Jared Loftus had a pair of T-shirts reading “Screw Dat!” and “Free Payton” on his Saintsdistrict.com website. About an hour later, Loftus had topped 100 sales of his latest design, which was literally created minutes after the news broke. “I stopped counting at about 5 [p.m.] yesterday, and we’d already sold a couple hundred at that point,” Loftus says. “I don’t know where we’re at this morning, but I know we’re getting a lot of comments on our Facebook page about it.” The Baton Rouge business wasn’t alone. In New Orleans, at least three brick-and-mortar T-shirt stores and a number of online retailers like College District had Payton-related shirts for sale immediately after the suspension news broke, The Times-Picayune reports. Loftus says neither he nor his staff anticipated Payton’s punishment would be so harsh, and didn’t have any T-shirt designs or slogans at the ready. “None of us ever thought he’d be suspended for a year. That was the outrage, and that was pretty much the thought behind the shirt,” he says. “People seem to like it.” —Steve Sanoski
Today’s poll question: Do you think the punishments handed down by the NFL to New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton and others on Wednesday are fair?
