{"id":427,"date":"2006-11-13T07:09:52","date_gmt":"2006-11-13T13:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=427"},"modified":"2022-01-02T07:39:24","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T12:39:24","slug":"hey-alabama-back-off-would-ya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=427","title":{"rendered":"Hey Alabama! Back Off Would Ya?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

“This lawsuit is the equivalent of the Catholic Church suing Michelangelo for painting the Sistine Chapel.”<\/p>\n

–Keith Dunnavant, author Coach: The Life of Paul “Bear” Bryant<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The bubbas-turned-pundits have been wracking their Bud-addled brains trying to figure what’s wrong with the Crimson Tide. Presently, Alabama is on the fast track to a less-than-acceptable .500 season unless they can turn things around and knock off archrival Auburn this coming weekend in Tuscaloosa. After Tiger losses to Arkansas and now Georgia, hopes are up a wee bit that Auburn might be beatable. But they might be sky high were it not for that little fact that in order to win football games one must actually score touchdowns<\/em> when in possession of the ball inside the twenty.<\/p>\n

Much blame has been cast on Head Coach Mike Shula (nice guy, but does he have what it takes to win at this level?) and offensive coordinator Dave Rader (Hey, let’s run Kenneth Darby up the middle again and again and again even though our offensive line couldn’t punch a hole in a piece of paper!). But all this speculation misses the point; worse yet, it takes a @3%$&* Yankee newspaper to figure out the real problem.<\/p>\n

Bad karma.<\/p>\n

More specifically, the cosmic chaos created when a gaggle of lawyers with too much time on their hands decides to sue iconic Alabama artist Daniel Moore.<\/a><\/p>\n

As The New York Times<\/em> reports,<\/a> Alabama officials decided to sue the artist, famous for his paintings such as “The Kick”<\/a> and “The Sack,”<\/a> over an alleged violation of the university’s trademark and “intellectual property.” Despite the fact that Moore once had a sideline pass and despite his work hanging in the Paul Bryant Museum (and I dare say, in the offices of many school administration officials), he was sued (the notice arrived at his studio via fax machine) and banished to selling his wares on Bryant Drive behind the stadium.<\/p>\n

I walked by his kiosk on game day in Tuscaloosa recently, unaware of the lawsuit. I only recall the throngs of Crimson faithful gathered around Moore, snapping up his prints and elated to meet the artist and get a cherished autograph.<\/p>\n

Now I’m sure there are all kinds of fancy lawyer reasons for this lawsuit, but down here folks don’t cotton too well to a bunch of guys in silk suits and shiny, Italian shoes chasing around and harassing innocent, little old ladies or a beloved figure like Moore. Plus, I’m a little confused over the juxtaposition of the phrase “intellectual property” with Crimson Tide football. To what brain trust are they referring? Oh, it must be our much-vaunted offensive coordinator. Yup, that must be it.<\/p>\n

As the article points out, First Amendment protection, freedom of expression and whether or not the artist produced a “transformative or creative contribution” beyond the bare facts have decided such cases in the past. Well, if that happens again, then I think Moore is home free. Take a look at “The Sack”<\/a> and tell me what you think. I see something there that a mere photograph would never capture–Cornelius Bennett “transforming” Notre Dame QB Steve Beuerlein into a small, greasy spot in the middle of the train tracks.<\/p>\n

Hey Alabama! If you want to restore some balance to the football universe and return to your winning ways then you might want to tell your crack team of legal eagles to get a life and back off, would ya?<\/p>\n

Lawyers with too much time on their hands…don’t even get me started.\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This lawsuit is the equivalent of the Catholic Church suing Michelangelo for painting the Sistine Chapel.” –Keith Dunnavant, author Coach: The Life of Paul “Bear” Bryant The bubbas-turned-pundits have been wracking their Bud-addled brains trying to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,43,23,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alabama-crimson-tide-football","category-college-football","category-current-events","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9875,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions\/9875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}