Trophy Towel Is a Terrible Travesty

As soon as the Super Bowl MVP hoists the Lombardi Trophy, the NFL always has a commercial ready to tell fans how they can buy overpriced hats and t-shirts "that are just like the ones the champions are wearing." It's harmless, and hey, if you want to spend $22 on a t-shirt or $30 on a Super Bowl cap, knock yourselves out.

But this year, the NFL has gone a step further and added a product that no self-respecting Steelers fan would ever purchase. For $24.99 you can buy a genuine Super Bowl champion "trophy towel." It's a towel that has "SB XLIIII champions" printed on it. Considering how much a hand towel costs, that's a nice 1,500 percent markup at least, but worse than that, the towel is a horrendously odious knock-off of something Steelers fans consider sacred.

The Terrible Towel is as much a part of Steeler fandom as Jerome Bettis, Art Rooney and the Immaculate Reception. It's also a great way to remember legendary radio announcer Myron Cope, who invented the towel in 1975. You can buy a Myron Cope Tribute Terrible Towel for $6.95 or a Super Bowl XLIII one for $7.95. Now the NFL is trying to get in on the act (30+ years later) and is marketing Trophy Towels for every team.

If you buy a Terrible Towel, at a reasonable $7.95, you will be supporting the Allegheny Valley School, a school that works with people with autism and other mental disabilities--Myron Cope donated the rights to the towel to the school back in the 1990s. If you buy a Trophy Towel at a gouge-you-till-your-eyes-bleed $24.95, you're just making the NFL richer.

So if you're looking to get a Super Bowl memento, grab a Terrible Towel, something any self-respecting Steelers fan would be happy to own. The NFL's Trophy Towel is something that no true Steelers fan should use as toilet paper. If you happen to have the misfortune to receive one as a gift, please burn it, as Steelers fans need to do everything we can to keep the NFL's copycat product from spreading.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-02-2009 @ 9:15PM

mordess said...

Bravo ... broadcast this fraud everywhere and as widely as possible !!!

2-03-2009 @ 8:20AM

Scott said...

I wonder if the NFL has violated some kind of trademark law here. I think a reasonable fan would assume that the trophy towel was a version of the terrible towel.

The NFL should donate the profits of this towel to the school - that is the only way to make this right.

2-03-2009 @ 9:44AM

nsanepup said...

OK NFL and the teams that make it up. I will say this one more time... Terrible Towel --It's a'Burgh Thang. Find your own!

You don't see us losing just because everyone else is doing it!

2-03-2009 @ 11:11AM

woodyone5 said...

OK NFL STOP THE GIMMICKS ITS OUR TOWEL OUR RIGHTS NOT YOURS LIKE MYRON COPE ONCE SAID "THE TERRIBLE TOWEL ITS POISED TO STRIKE " KEEP YOUR NOSE OUT OF THE BURGH BUT GIVE US OUR TROPHY....if u must immitate our towel at least you can give the proceeds to the Allegheny School for the menatally handicapped

2-03-2009 @ 2:51PM

Kerrik13 said...

I'm a Steeler's fan and I'm not sure why everyone is so uptight about the Trophy Towel... it isn't meant to replace the Terrible Towel, it is meant as an addition to the SB champion product line.

If the Packers won, fans wouldn't be screaming that they are ripping off the Title Towel.

And this isn't a Steelers exclusive item... it is meant to be made available whenever a team wins the Super Bowl. This year it just happenend to be the Steelers. If it were any other team, this new product would be brought into the super bowl scene without a single hiccup.

Now, if the NFL wanted to market small hand towel sized golden towels called the trophy towel, that is another story... but a bath towel (btw, how many of these sports writers keep saying this towel is a hand towel? How big are your hands, dude! :) ) that commemerates a super bowl champion is a totally different product.

I love the terrible towel but I will buy the trophy towel too... just like I bought a Steelers sport towel, a nice Steelers beach towel, and other Steeler's fan products.