Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Cardinals Super Bowl loss is Nicaraguans win

On Sunday the Pittsburgh Steelers captured their sixth Super Bowl crown after a thrilling 27-23 win over the Arizona Cardinals. While both teams played brilliantly the true winners may be Nicaraguan children.

Much like last year, clothes printing the losing team as Super Bowl champions will be donated to charities for distribution in Central America. Dozens of Nicaraguan children will soon be wearing t-shirts and caps emblazoned with "Super Bowl XLIII Champions" and the Arizona Cardinals logo.

Those clothes should go well with the 2007 BCS National Champion Ohio State University t-shirts:
Because (the Cardinals) lost, licensing agreements forbid Roberts from ever selling the shirts in the United States.

So, he's giving them to charity. One Life at a Time, a non-profit started by Roberts' neighbor, will distribute the clothes to needy schoolchildren in Honduras and Nicaragua. The group did the same thing with about 600 BCS National Champion T-shirts branded with the Ohio State University Buckeyes' logo, printed before the 2007 game at University of Phoenix Stadium. The team was defeated in that year's bowl game by the University of Florida Gators.
Image- azcentral.com
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Los Angeles Times, azcentral.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So when is somebody gonna ask who this kind of deal really benefits? Anybody who has been to Nicaragua can see all kinds of cheap American t-shirts everywhere. Along with parts of Africa, Central America is the dumping ground for unwanted clothing.
Does anyone really think that the average Nicaraguan feels flattered by this situation? Does anyone really believe it changes their lives in any meaningful way?
The only people who gain are the NFL sports memorabilia purveyors who now get to write off the loss. That's fine but cut the humanitarian crap - as if they really cared about Nicaraguans. It's fin

Erwin C. said...

Anon -

Funny you should say that. For similar reasons that you mention Bolivia's government campaigned in 2007 against buying and wearing used clothing. At the time one senior official called it "undignified" to use clothing "thrown out by another country."

http://ourlatinamerica.blogspot.com/2007/07/quote-of-day-bolivia-and-raggedy-old-t.html