The Denver Broncos defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday evening, but not everyone is happy. And I'm not talking about Steelers fans. Texas A&M is upset over the use of the 12th Man flag since the 12th Man is a trademark of the university. Jason Cook is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Texas A&M University and he took to Twitter after the game ended:
FYI #Broncos, the 12th Man belongs to Texas A&M. We saw the flag today and will defend our trademark. #TAMU #gigem
— Jason Cook (@jason_cook) January 9, 2012
A respected institution of learning, one would hope, feels it needs to publicly lash out at the Denver Broncos for violating a trademark? Yeah, talk about a waste of time. Just like all other infringements, this could have been done by sending a letter to the Broncos privately about the flag. This just seems petty.
The Seattle Seahawks do have a contract with the university to use the 12th Man, meaning there's no point in bringing that up here.
The Denver Broncos did draft a Texas A&M Aggies football player in 2011. We all know him as Von Miller, the No. 2 overall selection last April.