Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels’s dispute with LSU over his old No. 5 has become a nationwide internet punchline for brands and professional sports teams.
On Thursday, news broke that Daniels’s attorney sent LSU a cease-and-desist letter stating that the school could no longer use his NIL (name, image, and likeness). The letter, obtained by Front Office Sports, didn’t specifically mention Daniels’s jersey number, but a subsequent statement released by Daniels’s camp implied he was going after the school because it had allowed another player to wear it despite the fact that Daniels won a Heisman Trophy while at LSU.
Since then, brands and sports teams across the country have begun making fun of Daniels with posts on social media—part of a growing trend of “trolling” using viral stories even when the teams or brands at hand don’t have direct ties to the subject.
One of the first posts came from StubHub. “Effective immediately, we will no longer offer tickets in groups of 5,” the ticket sale platform said in a post on X in the hours following the news. “Out of respect for Jayden Daniels, we’re only doing 4 or 6+. Thank you for your understanding.” The post included a screenshot of ticket sales for the Sept. 27 matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Daniels’s Commanders.
“StubHub is where fans are, so our social team reacts like fans do, in real time, which is why we were early on the number 5 joke,” a StubHub spokesperson tells FOS. “We think the best brand social doesn’t interrupt the conversation, it’s already a part of it.”
DraftKings Sports also posted a joke about the jersey retirement debacle. “Out of respect to Jayden Daniels, I’ll be ending my work shift at 4:59 today,” the post, made on X on Friday, read. “Thanks to my boss for understanding me heading out early.”
A DraftKings spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Then, over the weekend, a slew of professional sports teams—including multiple MLB teams—poked fun at Daniels as well.
After beating the Washington Nationals 4–1, the Mets poked fun at Daniels—whose team resides in the same town as the Nats. “Stopped at 4 out of respect for Jayden Daniels,” the post on X read.
Not all teams that have posted have a specific tie to Daniels or to Washington, D.C. sports. The Cleveland Guardians, for example, posted after beating the San Diego Padres 6–1: “Won by 5 because we’re not scared of Jayden Daniels.”
Representatives for the Mets and Guardians did not respond to requests for comment.
The nationwide troll job is part of a larger trend of teams and companies integrating popular, viral moments into their social media posts to garner likes, clicks, and attention. Most of the posts appeared successful: the Mets earned 118,000 likes, the Guardians earned 38,000, and StubHub garnered 61,000. DraftKings, with fewer than 150 likes, appeared to be an outlier.
Daniels, for his part, said last week that he is “locked in” on Commanders training camp, and that while he hoped issues between his camp and LSU were worked out, his “sole focus” was on his upcoming NFL season.
Daniels’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment regarding the internet trolls.
