Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Sport, Celebrity, Dwayne Johnson, Football, Weird
Tom Wood
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has been threatened with legal action by US Women’s National Team star Megan Rapinoe after she noticed something familiar about the rebranding for Johnson’s American football league.
Basically, Rapinoe reckons that the new branding for XFL – the gridiron league that Johnson recently bought from WWE supremo Vince McMahon – is too similar to the logo for the company she and her wife, Sue Bird, own with fellow football star Alex Morgan, snowboarder Chloe Kim, and swimmer Simone Manuel.
That company is called Togethxr and is aimed at helping out young people in future by challenging conceptions of traditional and conventional roles for women in society.
As you can see from the pictures, the logos are really quite similar, right?
The post from XFL even features the word ‘together’ as well.
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Well, none of this has passed Rapinoe by, and she tweeted out suggesting that she could be set to take legal action against the Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment.
On Thursday, she wrote: “Welp. This is awkward. Only thing @TheRock and @XFL2023 are gonna be cookin up is a response to the Cease and Desist and an ENTIRE new brand ID. @togethxr got this on [lock] boys.”
Bird then later shared a picture of the offending logo, writing: “Well doesn’t that look familiar.”
Whilst we can’t be exactly sure which element of the logo they’re annoyed about, it’s almost definitely something to do with the X on the XFL logo, and probably the use of the word ‘together’, as the similarities do seem quite striking.
Johnson – himself a former American football player – purchased XFL from Vince McMahon in 2020 and has built a partnership between the league and the NFL in order to advance the sport.
XFL say that their new ‘visual identity represents a new era for the forward-thinking league, signalling one of inclusivity, innovation, and co-creation as it works to build tomorrow’s league’.
A statement from Togethxr reads: “Togethxr and its co-founders have worked tremendously hard to build a platform that uplifts women in sports and culture,
“We were disheartened to see the announcement of the XFL’s new branding and logo, which has striking similarities to our own.
“It’s our mission to weave representation and equality into all that we do, which is why we’ve issued a legal notice to the XFL highlighting our concerns.
“We will continue to protect the important work we’re doing.”
On Instagram, they said: “Too often the work and creativity of women is overlooked and undervalued,
“Diversity and equality are the norm around here. We’re thrilled to see the XFL embrace inclusivity, but this rebrand ain’t it.”
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