Looking to support the Louisville Cardinals hoops team in the weekend’s Final Four Tournament? You may want to slap down $24.99 to purchase a “Rise Up #5 On Court T-Shirt” (so named for Kevin Ware, the player who horrifically broke his leg during last Sunday’s win versus the Duke Blue Devils). “A portion of the proceeds” of the Addidas shirt, the website notes, “directly benefits University of Louisville Athletics.”
Of coure, if you’re looking to support Kevin Ware, who suffered the awful injury, or his family, who could be saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills, you probably don’t want to buy the shirt. Because neither Ware nor his family stand to benefit from this appalling exercise in heartstring consumption “disaster capitalism” (to invoke Naomi Klein’s phrase) at all.
“No non-profit does buccaneer profiteering quite like the NCAA,” Dave Zirin writes at The Nation. “What other institution would see a tibia snap through a 20-year-old’s skin on national television and see dollar signs? In accordance with their rules aimed at preserving the sanctity of amateurism…”
Read on at Free Sport …
