The Men's Basketball Tournament is one of its biggest cash cows, in 2010 it was revealed that they had agreed a TV deal with CBS worth $10.8 billion over 14 years. Kevin Ware will not see any of this money, no player will. The players who are providing the entertainment and taking all of the personal risk in this situation receive no compensation outside of their athletic scholarships, which typically cover tuition and board but little else for players who disproportionately hail from some of the poorest areas of America.
However, this argument is akin to beating a dead horse at this point. What sets the Kevin Ware incident apart, for me, is the revelation today that Adidas will be selling these t-shirts, at $25 a pop.
Prominently featuring Ware's jersey number, fair game under the NCAA's definition of image rights, the sportswear giant is actively seeking to profit from the publicity surrounding his gruesome fall, under the guise of providing fans a way to show their support for him. This literal capitalisation on a young man's broken leg should not be excused because it panders to a basic human emotion, if anything it makes it more deplorable that Adidas have sought to turn sympathy into a consumer product. It smacks of the same ideology that sees many consumer products painted pink for "breast cancer awareness", an ideology that comes under attack in the documentary film Pink Ribbons, Inc, the trailer for which can be seen below.
I talk about this film further in a piece that should be published within the next couple of days. The fact that many feel the need to display their compassion for Ware on a t-shirt is worrying in itself, that Adidas is looking to profit off of this is downright troubling.
photo source: sbnation.com
