T-Shirt Criticizes 'National Communist Athletic Association'

While the Penn State football program attempts to move on from scandal and rebuild, evidenced in part by the first overhaul of the Nittany Lion's uniform in 60 years, fans still upset with the perceived severity of the NCAA sanctions can also express their feelings with a fashion statement. The independent Student Book Store in State College, Pa., has tapped into what it considers the sentiment of many Penn State fans with a shirt featuring the NCAA logo that replaces the "C" with a communist hammer and sickle and reads "National Communist Athletic Association."

The shirt's back reads, "Overstepping their bounds and punishing the innocent since 1906." The design was created by Smack Apparel, a company specializing in pro- and college-sports smack talk. The shirt is one of many offered by the company expressing support for Joe Paterno and the Penn State football program, but it is the most controversial. The shirts are not licensed by the university nor sold by a university-sponsored bookstore, and the university itself has been doing its best to distance itself from the shirts.

While the shirt is not intended to be a defense of Jerry Sandusky but a criticism of the NCAA, it is still a questionable fashion statement. Aside from the issue of how exactly the NCAA sanctions are communist, fans looking to support their team would be better off following the example of the football program as it puts the past behind it and moves on.