Barry Sanders’ legal threat nixes beer trolling Detroit Lions

A Detroit brewery had created a beer, Same Old Lager, that seemed to poke fun at the Detroit Lions. Soon after its debut, that beer is no longer around.

The Detroit Free Press reported Monday that Eastern Market Brewing Company has stopped making and selling the beer after Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders — whose image, in 8-bit form, was used on the can — had his legal team threaten to shut down production of the beer.

The can for the 4.5% alcohol content beer had a football field with what appeared to be Sanders’ likeness on it, with the lettering of the beer on the packaging in the same Honolulu Blue and silver coloring that the Lions use.

Sanders apologized “to any fans that were duped” by thinking he was involved with the beer — insisting that he had no affiliation with the company.

Some of you may have seen this in the @freep today – I have no affiliation with this company, and they are using my image without any permission. My legal team is working through the process to shut this down ASAP. Apologies to any fans that were duped. pic.twitter.com/STCnX2fuGS

— Barry Sanders (@BarrySanders) November 23, 2020

The brewery had a Facebook post about the lager that has since disappeared from the brewery’s page. There is also no mention of the beer on the Eastern Market Brewing website. The Free Press reported the description of the beer as: “This classic American lager is exactly what you’d expect. Light, crisp and always leaves you wanting more. Just keep telling yourself ‘the Next Beer, will be The Beer.'”

A message left with Dayne Bartscht, the managing partner of Eastern Market Brewing, was not immediately returned. The person who answered the phone at the number listed for Eastern Market Brewing said the brewery had no comment and declined to give his full name.

Same Old Lager is a play on a familiar refrain around Detroit about the “Same Old Lions,” after the team has another failing. Detroit has not won a playoff game since the 1991 season and hasn’t won a division title since the 1993 season.