Off The Top: What’s A Who Dat, Anyway?

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What’s a who dat, anyway?

Well, that’s a ridiculous question in this neck of the woods. Even someone as ignorant about football as I am knows the answer to that one. A who dat is to the New Orleans Saints what an “ole” is to a bullfighter. A call to get the job done.

And get the job done is what they did a couple of weeks ago. And, yes, my television, the same one I claimed wouldn’t pick up football for years, now seems to pick it up just fine. I kept pinching myself to be sure I was actually watching a professional football game, but I really, truly was.

And what a game it was for us residents of the Magnolia State. Most of us feel a kinship with the Saints, so whether we’re ardent fans or not, we kind of want to see them win. And we suffered along with their losses for years.

But we also had a sort of hometown boy on the opposing team in the National Football League playoffs this year, so some of us were hard-pressed to know who to really root for. I mean Brett’s from just down the road, for Pete’s sake. Talk about your divided loyalties.

But, in the final analysis, most of us probably rooted for the good old New Orleans team. That town’s what we mean, after all, when we talk about going to the city. It’s practically in our back yard. And we all suffered along together post-Katrina, so that makes those folks sort of in-laws, if not real kin.

And speaking of divided loyalties, I don’t envy Archie Manning. His heart is surely with the Saints, as he played with them for several years. And now his son Peyton is playing with the opposing team in the Super Bowl this weekend. I think if I were he, I’d just stay in bed that day.

But you would just know that somebody’s got to throw a monkey wrench in the fun. The NFL has announced that it has a right to the term, “Who Dat,” and has issued a cease and desist order against several New Orleans businesses that sell T-shirts featuring the Saints fleur-de-lis emblem along with the famous saying, which are, of course, hot sellers right now.

Which leads to the question: where did “Who dat” come from?

Clarion Ledger Sports Writer Rick Cleveland did some research on it recently and found a number of folks who claim either to have started it themselves or to know from whence it arose. But there were others who disagree with all their answers.

Cleveland says the term has been around since long before Aaron Neville and the other Saints fans started chanting it in the early 1980’s. College Hall of Famer and former Alcorn State coach Marino Casem says it was around in 1979 when Alcorn defeated Mississippi State 80-78 at the last second.

He remembered hearing it first in 1968 when Alcorn played Florida A & M in the Orange Bowl Classic when some Florida fans used it to make fun of the little team from Mississippi at practice the day before the game. The little team, incidentally, clobbered Florida A & M the next day.

Louisiana State fans as well as Southern University fans both claim the chants origins, while Cleveland says the Urban Dictionary defines it as a cheer that was taken from a song celebrating the hiring of Bum Phillips to coach the Saints in 1981.

But Cleveland’s research also revealed that some athletes remember it much earlier from high school teams and that late 19th century jazz musicians used the term even before that. Others recall that the term was used in traveling minstrel shows that came through the Mississippi Delta in the early part of the 20th century.

Whatever its origins, “Who dat” has become synonymous with the New Orleans Saints and will likely be forevermore considered a part of their ambiance as well as their history. And it seems highly presumptuous to me that the NFL is claiming ownership of it. It’s not as if they came up with the chant itself, and interfering with New Orleans businesses attempting to make a dollar or two on it is just nit-picking. But then I guess the NFL is like many other entities these days where there’s money at stake.

And as far as who dat itself is concerned, I suppose we’ll know who dat is for sure on Sunday, right?