New York Jet Tim Tebow has taken a good amount of flak and ridicule this past year for being a devout Christian. No matter what your feelings are from a religious standpoint, it’s impossible to ignore the man’s success and popularity. As so often happens in sports, when fans latch onto an icon, t-shirts are soon to follow. It should come as no surprise that Tebow t-shirts are out there that highlight his faith.
As such, Cubby Tees has been selling a t-shirt with the text “My Jesus,” in a color and script mimicking the New York Jets logo. Not one to usually get too defensive about such things, Tebow and his lawyers have been fighting back against this and have sent a cease and desist letter to Cubby Tees. The center of their argument is that sales of these shirts make it look like Tebow himself endorses Cubby Tees and the shirt in question.
It’s too early to know what the end outcome will be, but Cubby Tees hasn’t buckled to pressure from the Tebow camp. Although Tebow has successfully gotten the shirts pulled from eBay, Cubby Tees is still selling the shirt in question from their own website. More seriously, though, this is yet another case that will eventually test how far a third party company can go in terms of appropriating the image and persona of a public figure to sell its own goods.