What Could Have Been Another Huge Headline For Barstool Dixie Is Overshadowed By A Misleading And Downright Unethical Photo
Charlotte Observer - Pressley, who graduated from UNC in May, is working with a website called barstooldixie.com. He tours the southeast in a large van, going to SEC football games and amid his recent travels the idea for a line of T-shirts came to him. Pressley was going for something, he said, that he hoped would “raise awareness” about the fact that college athletes don’t profit when their jerseys are sold, or when their image is used to promote college athletics. “What will make someone understand the fact that jerseys are being sold for $90 and players are not seeing a cent off of it?” Pressley asked. “I said, well, maybe we’ll sell a Mark Emmert T-shirt for $25 and he won’t see a cent off it.” Pressley calls it, simply, the “Likeness” line. There are 16 shirts. Many feature cartoon images that bear a striking resemblance – a likeness, if you will – to current college football players.
“I don’t know Mark Emmert on a personal basis,” Pressley said, “but I know him from afar and one thing that’s clear is that this guy is a huge proponent of making money off people’s likeness. So I was like, what can I do to pay this guy a tribute?
“Maybe I’ll make a T-shirt of him and make money off his likeness.”
If you missed the Likeness Line Announcement Video we put out last week, I encourage you to check it out now as it is not only linked a few words back in this sentence, but it is also conveniently placed at the top of this post. For those of you who still won’t watch it, I feel you—stick it to the man!!
Basically, the idea is that we are selling a bunch of cool shirts, and one of them is an illegal representation of NCAA President Mark Emmert. As it turns out, it is against U.S. law to sell somebody else’s image and keep the all profit for yourself. However, the X-factor here is that Mark Emmert does this exact thing for a living, so I’m pretty positive that he encourages similar behavior from everyone else—especially people like me who got to experience his leadership first hand as a member of that ol’ NCAA he governs. In summary, I know Marky E. is with this movement 100% because I know that Marky E. is NOT a hypocrite. Plain and simple. Meanwhile, all the other shirts in the line are cool too, and 100% of the profits made from their sales ($12.50 per shirt) are going directly into a savings account to be later donated to people who might be worthy of this particular charity. Over this first weekend these 15 shirts made $1,237.50 in profit. If all this still doesn’t make sense, I encourage you to either go back and finally watch the video, or just click this for the impulse buy.
Anyway, I think the News and Observer article is well written, and that the author might even stumble upon an award for “Understatement of the Year” when he called the Dixie Bus a “large van.” Even though the writing was good, as a forthcoming young man I feel it is my duty to address the real elephant in the room here…
Robert Willett / Whoever Is Responsible—I get it man, I didn’t play a lot in college. I am well aware that I spent more time practicing/standing on the sideline than I did getting live game reps on Saturdays. But come on… Is this article really suggesting that there is ZERO photographic evidence of the times that I did actually play? After everything I tried to do for that university, this newspaper wants to curtail my entire career into a single picture of me lobbing warm-up slow balls during a spring practice? What about the times I went in live game action to sidearm deep outs to the wide side of the field to add on to half-a-hundred point leads? Are you saying all those pictures just “disappeared” ???
If you don’t want to believe in my athleticism—fine. You are out of your mind, but fine. But even if that is the case, to present me to an entire regional audience as a swagless practice player is what Judge Joe Brown might call “libel.” Seriously, when I coached last year I literally spent the entire season pacing the sidelines dressed like I was auditioning for the St. Lunatics “Tip Drill” video. Can’t I just get a morsel of respect Robert Willett? Please.
Another publication mentioned in their article that the Likeness Line will likely end in litigation. That actually might turn out true if somebody doesn’t change this News and Observer pic. If their story goes on to be printed to physical copies, my only hope is that it doesn’t even sniff anything before page four in sports. There is no place for this kind of blasphemous picture in that paper, or in the wholesome and morally sound world of Barstool Sports.
Other than the egregious misuse of the featured image, shoutout to Andrew Carter for the well-written piece. I have to admit that I loved the SB Nation piece as well because even though they accidentally forgot to make any mention of Barstool Sports whatsoever, they did subtly hint that the company belongs to me.
Whether or not they could have hinted at something more false is still up for debate, but I do think that quote is ambiguous enough that I should show it to every single LSU girl I meet this weekend in Baton Rouge just on the off chance that one might be into a 22-year old with multimillion dollar company.
