Yesterday, we told you about the Kevin Ware-inspired Adidas shirts that were for sale in the Louisville athletics team store, and we told you why you shouldn't buy one. The idea of Louisville and Adidas profiting from Kevin Ware's injury caused a bit of a stir on the internet, prompting the university to make a statement claiming that Louisville would not be seeing any profits from the sale of this particular shirt. From WDRB:
U of L associate athletic director Brent Seebohm said that U of L, "proactively decided to waive any traditional licensing royalties revenue connected to the No. 5 graphic to be worn by the team on the court. . . . The shirt was created as a respectful tribute to honor Kevin within NCAA trademark apparel parameters, and allow fans to rally around the team. Because of that, adidas is contributing a portion of every sell to the university's scholarship fund."
That's a very noble thing of Louisville to do, but shortly after that story was published, a curious thing happened: the shirt disappeared from the team store. (Update: The shirt has returned! Who the hell knows what's going on.) We tried contacting the university to get an explanation as to why the shirt was pulled, but have yet to receive a response. It's hard to imagine that this would have been Louisville's choice, though, if the school really was set to get scholarship money out of the deal. Our best guess is that Adidas got rid of the shirt in order to avoid bad publicity.
Anyway, you can no longer buy a T-shirt to show your support for Kevin Ware. Sorry about that, but it's for the best.