Artistic license in play I believe. Fitting 2 letters into an oval shape and wanting the result to look balanced.
The text book of lettering styles goes under the bench pretty much. They turn into pieces of art themselves.
You twist and turn them as you please to make them fit and still retain grace and flow. The strict script L doesn't have a double skip loop at the bottom either but they put one there to balance, connect and fill the space.
I'll still go w/the T but as with many of these it can be difficult to deciper. You may be right though.