Across parts of Africa, there’s a pervading conception
that the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl, the Pittsburgh
Steelers won the AFC Championship, and the New York Yankees won the
ALCS.
The people who believe this is the case are far from deluded. In
fact, their lives depict a much truer glimpse of reality than the
fans who attended any football or baseball game in the United
States.
Philadelphia fans may never get to don T-shirts that read
“Eagles Super Bowl XXXIX Champions,” but kids in the
rural villages of Ghana and Sierra Leone will start wearing them a
few months from now.
They can thank an overeager NFL determined to put out its
product as quickly as possible.
Wanting to capture the victors crowing themselves in
championship gear right after the game, the major sporting events
have preprinted apparel for both teams in order to cover their
bases. The obvious problem is that only one of the teams will be
wearing this attire afterward.
Fortunately, the NFL decided not to let the misleading shirts go
to waste and agreed to donate them to World Vision, a global
nonprofit relief and development organization.
This charity, in turn, ships the apparel to some of the most
desolate and impoverished regions of the world where it is most
needed. Most of these areas will never know the shirts are a
misprinted farce. Most of these areas don’t even know about
football or baseball to begin with.
Nevertheless, they’ll develop a blind allegiance for the
team that finished a close second, and more importantly, a real
appreciation for the charity our country offers.
“It builds bridges between us and other countries,”
World Vision spokesperson Dean Owen said. “It’s not
just second-hand clothing. It’s something that really means a
lot and represents the U.S. in a really positive way.”
It’s such a win-win situation that it seems criminal when
organizations opt to destroy the apparel instead. But the mere
printing of these shirts is for some reason an embarrassment that
some would prefer to do without.
While interning at West Virginia in 1995, UCLA head equipment
manager Mike McBride was responsible for shredding and incinerating
preprinted shirts that erroneously declared the school National
Champions after it lost to Florida in the Sugar Bowl.
“They just don’t want it to hit eBay,” McBride
explained.
But it’s ridiculous that this paranoia of T-shirts
escaping onto the black market prevents charities from aiding third
world countries.
“It’s an incredible waste,” said Major Dennis
Gensler of the Salvation Army. “Any agency that receives the
donation would benefit. There’s no benefit to
shredding.”
How dangerous could a few misprinted shirts floating around be?
They’re novelty items, not nuclear weapons. At the very
worst, some disillusioned Buffalo Bills fan buys a shirt to
alleviate his bitter memory of the early 1990s, when the Bills were
runner-up in the Super Bowl four consecutive times.
Still, it’s a grave enough threat to cause World Vision to
keep tight tabs on where the Eagles T-shirts end up this year.
“We only deliver to areas where we’re fairly certain
that they won’t wind up in the black market,” Owen
said. “We don’t want generous NFL contributions to be
used in that way.”
And because of this, the clothes are shipped out mostly to
isolated rural areas where they won’t get into the
“wrong” hands. The biggest Eagles fans in Ethiopia will
never know their favorite team lost the Super Bowl.
Even if they found out, they probably couldn’t care
less.
Finley wishes he had a T-shirt that read “UCLA 2004
Las Vegas Bowl Champions.” E-mail him at
afinley@media.ucla.edu if you’re selling any on the black
market.