The No Fun League is at it again. They have a habit of making Saints fans feel downright paranoid and this time they’re doing so by messing with our love of seasonings and hot sauce:
Slap Ya Mama, a Louisiana-based brand of hot sauce and Cajun seasonings, will no longer get to splash its logo on television during preseason games when the New Orleans Saints reach the red zone.
Walker & Sons, Inc., the parent company of Slap Ya Mama products, said Cox Sports Television had been instructed by the NFL to pull the advertisement “in light of domestic violence issues” facing the league.
CST, based in Metairie, broadcasts Saints preseason games.
The red-zone ads had been controversial for other reasons, with some viewers complaining that they were intrusive. Walker & Sons said the NFL sent a subsequent memo to league teams asking them to stop the red-zone “virtual signage” ads during preseason broadcasts.
The hot sauce company sent a press release criticizing the move before the Saints’ third preseason game on Saturday at Indianapolis, which will be televised nationally by CBS.
“People who know our brand ‘get it’ but all of a sudden, after three years, the NFL doesn’t. Maybe they just don’t understand our culture. What a shame!” said Jack D. Walker, the company’s vice president, in the news release.
Walker maintained that the name “refers to a loving slap on the back and a kiss on the cheek to your mama as a thank you for preparing another great-tasting dish.”
The Saints play the Baltimore Ravens on Aug. 28 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in the final preseason game of the year and CST’s next scheduled broadcast. Ravens running back Ray Rice and his fiancee were arrested in February after a physical altercation at an Atlantic City casino.
The final paragraph is the reason for the epic quote from Evan Woodberry’s piece for the Vestigial-Picayune. The timing of this ban is not coincidental. The NFL doesn’t want any reminders of the way Ray Rice beat up his fiancee and dragged her around like a rag doll. Rice, infamously, wasn’t charged with anything and received a two game suspension.
The NFL maintains that it takes domestic violence seriously. Instead of cracking down on the wife beating ,gun toting players in its midst, it bans ads featuring Cajun spices with a colloquial brand name recognizable as humorous to anyone with a lick of sense. If anything was intended to be tongue in cheek, it’s Slap Ya Mama.
In the end, the Ville Platte, LA based company will benefit from the NFL’s malakatude with increased sales. They’re playing this for all it’s worth; knowing that Roger Goodell and his minions are as popular with Saints fans as the Ebola virus.
I have a confession, I’ve never tried Slap Ya Mama products. I’m a Prudhomme’s Cajun Magic and Crystal Hot Sauce kind of guy, but I’m planning to check out Slap Ya Mama as a way of slapping the Commish and the No Fun League down.
I hope the humorless suits at the NFL don’t take this post literally. I would never slap the Commish, after all he was played by my countryman Michael Chiklis:
My buddy and fellow Spankster Brett reminded me of this throw from our 2013 debut:
*headdesk*
They are taking a stand against domestic violence by refusing to advertise a product named “Slap Ya Mama” (which admittedly could be questioned on whether it is referring to domestic violence or really be just a cajun-sounding expression of delight).
So what are they doing against real cases of domestic violence in their own ranks ?