19-0 (oops) Gear being sent to the "needy"

[Donk Yore]

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/15224640/detail.html?rss=pit&psp=news

snip (only one more paragraph)

Shirts, sweatshirts and hats, all printed with the Patriots as the Super Bowl winners, arrived at the World Vision warehouse in Sewickley on Tuesday.

Many of the shirts say "19-0" -- a reference to the Pats' quest for a perfect record. Instead, the Giants' victory ended the AFC champions' season at 18-1.
sponsor

The losers' gear will be packed and sent to third-world countries by World Vision, which works to improve the lives of poor children in more than 100 countries.

Misprinted merchandise for the Green Bay Packers and San Diego Chargers, who lost to the Giants and the Patriots in the NFC and AFC championship games, will also be sent to other countries.

[Squatch]

1. Cool! Good on them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Trust me the recipients will not care

and the NFL will not sell it

[trotsky]

3. NFL policy used to be to destroy those items.

It's good that someone can benefit from them now.

[redqueen]

5. God, what a disgusting thought...

all that stuff, just wasted... the mindlessness is almost unbelievable.

[trotsky]

15. Their thinking is probably in terms of black market/collectible stuff.

Some of the most valuable items are "errors" like the upside-down printed stamp, or double-pressed coins. Same deal here. Trying to protect their product & image. Just glad they've changed their position now.

[redqueen]

19. Greed. It's just greed. (nt)

[Donk Yore]

7. Truly

This is the first time I've ever heard of the NFL doing something that doesn't benefit them monetarily.

[trotsky]

12. To be fair, they give tons of money to the United Way.

Many teams virtually mandate "community days" for their players, one day a week where they get the day off but they have to go volunteer in the community.

The NFL has its problems, sure, but overall they do some pretty good things.

[Donk Yore]

16. you got me there

I don't know how I completely blanked on UW.

[RamboLiberal]

18. I remember hearing they did this 2 years ago

Simply cause I live in Pittsburgh when the Steelers won and it was questioned what happened to "Seahawks Super Bowl Champs" merchandise.

[flvegan]

13. Tax deduction...it benefits them more than destroying it.

[Squatch]

14. Are tax deductions for charitable donations bad things?

:shrug:

[flvegan]

17. Of course not.

I doubt the NFL's "charitable" nature in this case, but I applaud the action. Everybody benefits, including the NFL.

[petronius]

9. I thought that was still the policy - I'm glad to hear it's changed (nt)

[onenote]

22. if so, its been awhile -- they've been giving it away since 1994

Baseball, on the other hand, was still destroying some items until just a couple of years ago.

[trotsky]

25. That's cool - I did not know it was that long.

Good for them.

[MrCoffee]

27. In 2004, MLB authorized the release of Astros NLCS T-shirts to charity

I read something about it in the Houston Chronicle at the time, they talked to a local T-Shirt printer who had the license to make up the NLCS champion shirts. The article said the shirts would be donated to overseas charities.

[Sanity Claws]

4. How much of a tax deduction are the donors taking?

This was unsaleable merchandise, having almost zero fair market value. I'll bet they'll claim much more than that in a tax deduction.

[zbdent]

10. probably claim "collectable" value ...

like a printing error on a Brett Favre rookie football card ...

[rockymountaindem]

6. I'm surprised they're not selling them as some "Dewey Beats Truman" novelty item n/t

[Scurrilous]

8. Great idea.

:thumbsup:

[MrCoffee]

11. I thought this happened all the time?

Seems like the NBA/MLB/NHL has been doing this for a while, and I thought the NFL was too.

[RB TexLa]

20. It has for a while, I've seen Buffalo Bills SB champs shirts on documentaries

[Beausoleil]

24. That's four season's worth right there! n/t

[onenote]

21. you are correct -- practice of giving away shirts dates back to 1994

http://www.officialbrettfavre.com/news/story_93e52765579b/

Major League Baseball used to give away certain gear, but destroy the rest. Now they give it all away too.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1024/p01s07-ussc.html

[Donk Yore]

23. Even better for them, then

I had never heard of it. The link I provided was from this morning.

[MrCoffee]

26. Great link, thanks!

My recollection was from a blurb in the Houston Chronicle following the 2004 NLCS when the Astros lost Game 7, and a local T-shirt printer had the license to make up the Championship shirts, and sent them to charity instead.

[jwirr]

28. That is great. Years ago we were taking some items to the local

dump and a huge truck pulled up and dumped a bunch of closed boxes. Being curious we opened one. It held hats and mittens from a corporation that had changed it's logo. Of course we were angry so we stuffed as many of them in our pickup as we could and made sure they got to the poor in this country. This kind of giving is one way to help that costs no one anything.