Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels has initiated a dispute with LSU over the school allowing cornerback DJ Pickett to wear his old No. 5—the number Daniels wore when he won the Heisman Trophy in 2023.
Last week, an attorney representing Daniels reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to athletic director Verge Ausberry stating that the school no longer had the right to use any aspect of Daniels’s name, image, and likeness (NIL), according to ESPN. The cease-and-desist also asked LSU to preserve communications, presumably as a tacit threat of potential future litigation.
“We have been informed that Louisiana State University … continues to use Mr. Daniels’ NIL notwithstanding the expiration of the contractual period during which LSU was authorized to do so,” read the letter, signed by attorney Adam Kenner. “Specifically, the agreement Mr. Daniels entered into with LSU and/or its Athletics Compliance Office provided LSU with, at most, a limited one-hundred-eighty (180) day post-termination or post-expiration grace period for the continued use of Mr. Daniels’ NIL. That grace period has long expired.”
The letter itself did not specifically mention LSU football giving the number to Pickett. But a rep for Daniels told ESPN they had initiated the dispute because Daniels was upset that LSU was allowing Pickett to wear his old number. Daniels’s camp has also asked for the university to return its copy of his Heisman Trophy.
