Here’s a $25 Kevin Ware t-shirt that Louisville is selling this week (UPDATE)

In today’s edition of “The NCAA is totally awful”, above you see a shirt promoting solidarity in the wake of Kevin Ware’s catostrophic injury, because when there’s a chance to profit, sponsors and schools will always ri5e to the occasion! The shirt has Kevin Ware’s number on the back, but not his name. Kevin Ware is an unpaid amateur, after all, meaning even now, as the University pairs with Adidas to sell shirts commemorating the catastrophic injury he sustained during the nationally televised game he wasn’t getting paid for, he can’t get a share of the profits.

But you know what? While it’d be convenient to say this is a school and sponsor profiting off the injury of an unpaid amateur and use this as an excuse to get outraged ... nahhhhhh.

I mean, it totally is. But let’s pick our battles.

Kevin Ware should have been getting paid when he was playing last weekend, but buying these shirts now isn’t co-signing corporate greed and galling hypocrisy so much as saying, “Hey, I want to show love for Kevin Ware because that kid seems awesome.” And Kevin Ware probably thinks the shirts are pretty cool, too. It IS cool that fans will have a way to show some support for Ware this weekend. It would have been better if the school paid for them and distributed them to fans for free, but oh well.

Buy the shirts here, if you want.

All things considered, there are much better reasons to hate the NCAA.

But yeah, for the record, Kevin Ware gets nothing from any of this.

Because yeah, the NCAA is totally awful.

Always.

UPDATE: Louisville announced Wednesday that the school has forfeited its royalties from these shirts. According to Associate Athletic Director Brent Seebohm, Louisville “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.” So there you go. NCAA rules are still stupid, and Kevin Ware still isn’t getting paid, but Louisville isn’t, either. (We told you not to get too outraged about this.)