Cowboys owner Jerry Jones thinks bad news is good for business. If so, Tuesday was a pretty good day for business.
The Cowboys are facing criticism for unveiling on Twitter a partnership with Black Rifle Coffee Company. Via the Associated Press, the company’s products include AK-47 Espresso, Silencer Smooth, and Murdered Out.
The Cowboys posted the tweet after another day of multiple mass shootings in America, including a massacre at a parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
The Cowboys had no comment to the AP. The coffee company crowed about the partnership. And for good reason; the relationship with the Cowboys and the inevitable controversy elevate its profile and brand. Anyone uncomfortable with the connection to the Cowboys wouldn’t have bought the coffee anyway; this makes those inclined to support the coffeemaker more aware of it -- and perhaps more likely to buy its products.
The company claims that it “supports veterans, first responders, and America’s men and women in uniform.” That prompted this strange remark from the author of the AP story: “Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ steadfast support of the military was best illustrated when he was one of the most outspoken NFL owners against players kneeling during The Star-Spangled Banner before games to protest racial injustice and police brutality.”
Folks, for the umpteenth time plus one, the anthem protests weren’t an assault on the military. And Jones wasn’t supporting the military by cajoling players to stand. He was preserving his ability to buy and maintain a superyacht, along with all his other holdings. Jones and the league deliberately pandered to those who refused then (and now) to see that the gesture wasn’t about the military. And it’s hard to imagine how Tuesday’s tone-deaf gesture by the Cowboys is about supporting the military.
It also would be interesting to know how much the Cowboys are making in this deal. Whatever it is, it arguably isn’t worth it. Unless America’s Team wants to saturate the portion of America that was repelled by anthem kneeling and that, in turn, will embrace a line of coffee products dripping with pro-gun messaging, even if it’s announced the day after guns were once again used to create more havoc in America.