(Illustration by Sportico, Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)Michael McCannTue, December 2, 2025 at 8:37 PM UTC·3 min readSan Francisco 49ers quarterback Mac Jones did not infringe the copyrighted “WIN Passage” motivational statement when Jones posted it as a 17-year-old high school student, the U.S. Copyright Claims Board held on Tuesday. The board reasoned that Jones’ tweet of the WIN Passage constituted fair use and thus not infringement.
Jones, represented by attorney Darren Heitner in this dispute, defeated psychologist Keith Bell’s claim for infringement.
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In court filings, Bell has described himself as “the father of swimming psychology,” who has served as a sports psychologist for national and Olympic teams. In 1982 Bell authored The Win Book, for which he secured a copyright registration.
He also copyrighted an approximately 230-word portion of the book called “Winning Isn’t Normal.” That portion has been dubbed the WIN Passage. It makes the point that winning is often hard and requires “unusual action” along with other, as one judge has written, “well-worn truisms.”
According to court records, Bell has filed more than two dozen lawsuits, many of them against public schools or nonprofits that published the WIN Passage on social media. Last year, he sued LSU head football coach Lane Kiffin, who in 2016 retweeted the WIN Passage.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFive months later, U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills dismissed the lawsuit against Kiffin. Mills wrote that Bell “appears to have an exceedingly high opinion of the literary value of his WIN Passage,” since Bell’s website claims it is “likely the most read & widely used literary work in history!”
Mills suggested “Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Faulkner might take issue” with that claim, which Mills wrote caused him to wonder whether he “is dealing with a litigant whose feet are firmly planted on the ground.”
In 2016, Jones posted the WIN passage on Twitter/X. He did so “to inspire other athletes.” There is no indication, the board noted, that “Jones used the work to sell anything” or “for commercial claim.” Jones also didn’t know Bell was the passage’s author.
Bell says he discovered Jones’ post in 2020. Two years later Bell sent a cease-and-desist letter to Jones, who by that point was the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots, with a demand of $249,975. Jones deleted the post either at that time or, as Bell claims, a year later.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe board stressed that Bell didn’t establish that Jones’ post cost him anything. Bell submitted “no evidence to any actual losses,” though he observes billions of people could have seen the post. Bell claims that Jones’ post was retweeted 18 times and garnered 65 likes.
Jones’ tweet constituted fair use, the board explained, for several reasons.
For one, Jones wasn’t trying to make money through the tweet. He wasn’t selling a product or service; the QB was a high school student offering a motivational statement. While Bell argued the post might have boosted Jones’ reputation and personal profile—a potentially more relevant point had Jones, who played for Alabama from 2017 to 2020, played in college during the NIL era—the board concluded that type of legal argument lacks support.
Jones also only borrowed one page, or about 1.5% of Bell’s book, which the board found to constitute a “very small part of the work at issue.” Bell also “widely disseminated” the WIN Passage “freely” for many years, the board stressed.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe board further used its order to warn Bell that “moving forward with claims regarding the same WIN Passage” could give rise to a claim for “harassing or other improper purpose.” To that end, the board highlighted Mills’ message that courts shouldn’t be used “as a forum for abusive shakedown lawsuits.”
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