Well, it seemed like a good idea.
Mississippi State baseball team’s new adidas batting shirts revealed Thursday looked pretty nifty at first glance, especially with the “Viva Starkvegas” Las Vegas-style sign replica on the front.
The shirt was covered with neon dots that created phrases associated with MSU baseball, such “Dudy Noble” and “Left Field Lounge.”
And then near the bottom on the back of the shirt was the phrase “F–K The School Up North.”
The “school up north” is Ole Miss and it was a phrase first started by former Mississippi State football coach Jackie Sherrill who often refused to say “Ole Miss” or “Mississippi.” Current coach Dan Mullen renewed Sherrill’s favorite saying about the Bulldogs’ in-state rival.
Immediately, adidas sputtered out an apology about the obscenity, claiming the T-shirt featured old artwork that was never presented to the university for approval.
Mortified Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin quickly hopped on Twitter to issue this apology:
“This afternoon it came to my attention that a shirt provided to our baseball team by adidas has an inappropriate phrase written on it.,” Stricklin said. “This is completely unacceptable and does not reflect the standards and values of Mississippi State University or its athletic dept. For anyone who was offended by this shirt, as I was, please accept our apologies and rest assured that this has been rectified.”
