Uganda Gets Jets-Vikings Super Bowl

We're talking, of course, about the championship merchandise that is printed in big games. The NFL needs to be ready for any outcome in the championship game, so they print t-shirts and hats for both teams so that they can immediately be worn by the winning players following the game.

The losing merchandise? It gets sent to a relief organization, World Vision, where it is distributed to countries such as Uganda, Niger and Sierra Leone.

Per a great New York Times article from three years ago, the same will happen with the loser of the Super Bowl between the Colts and Saints:

The Super Bowl will end about 10 p.m. Sunday, and by 10:01 every player on the winning team — along with coaches, executives, family members and ball boys — could be outfitted in colorful T-shirts and caps proclaiming them champions.

The other set of championship gear — the 288 T-shirts and caps made for the team that did not win — will be hidden behind a locked door at (Sun Life) Stadium. By order of the National Football League, those items are never to appear on television or on eBay. They are never even to be seen on American soil.

They will be shipped Monday morning to a warehouse in Sewickley, Pa., near Pittsburgh, where they will become property of World Vision, a relief organization that will package the clothing in wooden boxes and send it to a developing nation, usually in Africa.

The MLB actually destroys the merchandise, while the NBA sends losing Finals gear to a charity overseas. The NFL goes the World Vision route, which causes for confusion in Niger--should any of the citizens know anything about American Football.