Photographer Sues Detroit Lions Over Use of Jared Goff High School Photos
A photographer has filed a lawsuit against the Detroit Lions, alleging the NFL team used his photos of quarterback Jared Goff without proper licensing.
Dennis Lee, who has worked as a professional photographer for more than two decades, filed the complaint on August 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The suit seeks financial damages and a court order preventing the team and its staff from displaying, distributing, or selling the images.
According to court documents, the dispute centers on three photographs taken in 2011 and 2012, which show Goff playing basketball and baseball at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield, California. In the lawsuit, Lee says he owns the copyrights to the images and licenses his work through sports photography sites such as MaxPreps and Scorebook Live.
“The license clearly states at the beginning that someone interested in using a photograph commercially is required to contact MaxPreps to request a quote for a commercial license,” the complaint reads. “No one from TDL (the Detroit Lions) ever contacted MaxPreps to obtain a commercial license to use the Goff Photos, and Lee never granted such a license.”
The lawsuit alleges that the Lions obtained the photos under a non-commercial license and later posted them to their Instagram and X accounts on March 27, 2025, as part of a post recognizing the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 and Major League Baseball’s Opening Day. The posts have since been deleted. The social media accounts have a combined following of nearly four million users.
Lee claims he was neither credited nor compensated for the posts and argues the Lions’ use constitutes commercial promotion because their social media channels are used to market games, players, and merchandise. The lawsuit states the unauthorized use caused him “an enormous amount of lost licensing fees.”
The images are described in the lawsuit as “rare and valuable,” with Lee believed to possess some of the only known professional photos of Goff playing sports other than football in high school. Lee says he has registered the images with the U.S. Copyright Office.
A Lions spokesperson declined to comment when approached by CBS, citing the organization’s policy not to discuss pending legal matters.
Last year, PetaPixel reported on photographer Allen Kee who also sued the Lions and the NFL for allegedly using his photo of former football star Barry Sanders to design a statue of him. Both parties hit back at Kee calling his claims “meritless.” The case is pending.
Image credits: All-Pro Reels / Joe Glorioso / CC BY-SA 2.0
