The strangest national championship shirt of all time

by:Matthew Hays04/26/12
I've been meaning to post this for a while. My mom recently sent me a few t-shirts commemorating the national championship victory. There was the gray one that the team wore immediately after the victory and a couple other nice ones generally celebrating the greatest sports related day of my life. Then there was the one you see above. Now I don't blame my mother for not recognizing why this might not be the most ideal shirt for a UK fan to wear around because she's a good person. She's not the type to say, get into a petty Twitter fight with U of L fans because of a regular season baseball game or something like that. She's the type of person who would see this shirt as just another way to commemorate the fantastic efforts of our players and coaches in what was a truly magical season. My issue isn't with anyone who would purchase or wear this shirt. I have worn it often, albeit within the confines of my own home, but often nonetheless. My issue is with the person at Nike who said this design is an acceptable one to present and sell. I don't even know if there was any malicious intent in the design. If there was, then shame on Nike for running with it. If there wasn't, then shame on Nike for hiring stupid designers. It's not even like there wasn't enough space on the front to clarify the asterisk there. C'mon guys. Let's get our heads on straight here. The above is an actual t-shirt for sale sporting a tongue-in-cheek commemoration of Barry Bonds' home run record. Barry Bonds is a man who has ADMITTED TO USING STEROIDS. What is the difference between this shirt, available from Tshirtbum and the UK one available from the Nike? I'd really love to hear the story behind the asterisk t-shirt. I can't believe anyone could look at that and say to themselves, "Yeah this is what UK fans want, an asterisk next to their team's number of NCAA championships. Put THAT on a t-shirt and sell it". It's generally easy to get UK fans to buy a t-shirt with just about anything on it. Hell, I think Fan Outfitters would sell shirts for exhibition games if they could and I think people would buy them. However, this should be one shirt that most UK fans stay away from.

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