As the Saints prepare for their next preseason game against those Correctional Facility All-Stars known as the Cincinnati Bengals, we find this to be an appropriate time to vent on a long standing feud of the “What came first: chicken or the egg” variety.
While watching an episode of Inside the NFL in 2006, I happened upon a post-game pep rally in the Bengals locker room which involved sweaty, muscle-bound men clad in mere towels. While it was an obvious sensory overload for the eyes, my ears couldn’t help but burn at the sound of a bastardized version of an oh-so familiar chant. “Who dey? Who dey? Who dey think gonna beat them Bengals? NOBODY!” I thought to myself “My beefcakes in towels, why have you forsaken me?”
“Who Dey Think Dey Are?”
Shocked and appalled, I raced to the phone to find anyone else who’d witnessed this blatant display of chant robbery. (And if anybody knows about robbery, it’s the Bengals.) Alas, I discovered that this offense by the Bengals’ Offense was yesterday’s news. Turns out, the Bengals had been spewing their “Who Dey” venom for decades. And not only that, the team claimed to be the inspiration for the Who Dat creed I’d built my entire football fan motto on since I was a wee girl in black and gold booties.
Ain’t “Dat” the Truth
Armed with this new information (new to me at least) I hit the internet in search of not the truth, but ammunition. You see, I knew with 100% confidence that there was no way in Ocho-Cinco’s Mohawk a town known for… (Wait, what the hell is Cincinnati known for?) could come up with such a colorful creed. They’d obviously ripped it off from the Saints well known “Who Dat” chant and made up a lamer version to call their own. All I needed to do now was gather enough information to prove that “Dey are who we thought dey were!”
As I suspected, many before me had been on the case. But the facts never seemed to add up. Here’s what wikipedia had to say about “Who Dey.”
“Although the exact origin of the phrase is disputed, it had been made popular by 1981 in Bengals fans’ cheers for their team during their run to Super Bowl XVI. Some fans would do the chant and other fans would reply, “Nobody!”…One possible source is a 1980 commercial for Red Frazier Ford of Cincinnati, which used this tagline: “Who's going to give you a better deal than Red Frazier? Nobody!” Cincinnati fans who had seen the commercial many times may have just copied it when cheering.
The point of origin that has been disputed on a local Cincinnati radio station is that the phrase came due to a locally distributed beer at the time called Hudepohl. It is said that as beer vendors went up and down aisles at the Bengals games during their first run at the Super Bowl, instead of yelling out "Beer here!" or some other call to let fans know that they had beer, they would yell out "Hudy!" as an abbreviation of Hudepohl.”
Who dat think dat don’t make sense?
Is that a Bengal or a Copycat?Even if “Who Dey” does trace back to 1981, we know for certain that “Who Dat” originated long before Luke and Laura’s wedding on General Hospital. In fact, “Who Dat’s” been around since long before the Bengals and even the Saints. It actually became a common element in vaudeville acts and minstral shows in the 1800s and early 1900s. Fast forward a few decades, and the cool cats on New Orleans Jazz scene had incorporated it into their everyday vernacular. In the 60s and 70s is where things get sticky. Some say fans would shout out “Who Dat” at games between New Orleans Public High Schools. LSU fans insist the chant started on their campus in the late 70s with the black sports fans chanting “Who!!!” so the crowd could respond “Dat!” Members of the faithful “Who Dat” nation say the chant caught on with Saints fans in the 70s but only gained widespread popularity in the 80s during the Bum Phillips era. There are even claims “Who Dat” can be found on a label of a 70s can of Falstaff Beer.
Who Dat Think this Debate Will Ever End? NOBODY!!!! Can anyone actually provide hardcore evidence as to the first time a Saints fan chanted “Who Dat” and a Bengals fan chanted “Who Dey?” Unlikely. But do we really need that evidence? “Dat,” “dis,” “dem,” and da rest of the “Butchering the English Language Gang” have been apart of Southern culture since before you could find grits above the Mason Dixon line. I mean c’mon. How many people from Cincinnati do you know who say “Dat” or “Dey” on a daily basis? (Moreover, how many people do you know from Cincinnati?) Clearly a phrase with this much soul had to come from the South.
When it comes right down to it, none of this seemed to matter until both of these teams broke free from obscurity and made it on to the national spotlight. The “Who Deys” admit to having abandoned their cheer during their "Bungals" days. And while “Who Dats” stood strong and chanted loud even in the "Aint's Era," it seems no one was listening.
While the debate rages on, we look forward to a battle where we know there’ll be a clear winner: Saints v Bengals, August 18th at 6:30pm. Who Dat say their blood will curl if they hear a “Who Dey” chant from the stands? Who Dat? Who Dat?
Martin..."You So Crap-py"
