Northwestern's Very Literal Wounded Warrior Uniforms

Northwestern Athletics/<a href=""target="_blank">Facebook</a>

Northwestern University and Under Armour have just definitively demonstrated that when you are completely out of touch with your own military, you can make some really horrific gaffes. I mean yeah, okay, people want to feel good about "supporting the troops," and the charity to which money is being donated is, indeed, a worthy one. But in execution, this is pretty disgusting.

If it was just the use of the flag motif I would be giving it a big, "Meh." Sure, technically there is a US Code that says you are not supposed to do that. But nowadays, it is not really a big deal and I never was one who thought I was serving the flag and that the cloth was somehow sacred.

But when you add in the blood-splatters "artistically scattered" across the uniform as though it was the football player who had been shot, mortared, rocketed, or hit with an IED, that takes it from being merely crass to being outright Not. Cool. At. All.

In the wake of the Civil War there was a new phrase coined: "waving the bloody shirt." It generally meant calling upon the history of heroes (and their sacrifices) to attack somebody else as "un-American." But it never actually meant a damned bloody shirt. It was a reference to a rhetorical device, and it was never used to make an extra buck. Unfortunately, Under Armour and Northwestern apparently thought that it might make good sense to cover football players playing a game in uniforms with what is supposed to be blood, as though those of us who wear somewhat different uniforms shed it.

Yes, I admit it, I have this feeling that somehow, the Wounded Warriors project is sort of being used as a crude marketing tool by the uniform maker and the school, both of which are capitalizing on the fact that there is a general, if vague, sense of guilt among the football game crowds that only 1 percent of the nation serves, and vanishingly few from among the stands of Northwestern (particularly as the school does not even have its own Army ROTC, but instead students who want to serve need to travel down to Chicago and the University of Illinois).* Northwestern is selling the jersey for $75, but then only donating 10% of the money, which means that $7.50 will actually make it to the Wounded Warrior foundation.

You know what? Why not just drop by the WWP site and send them a tenner? That is more than Northwestern will be sending them per shirt. Just save the rest of your $75 and use it for something else.

*Under Armour has apparently been doing something similar to this for a couple of years with several different universities. Being overseas these past few years, I do not see college football so this was the first time I was aware of the scheme.

The opinions here are those of the author and do not represent the USG, the Wounded Warrior project, the DoD, or any sports team anywhere. I can be reached at

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
More From News