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Tim Tebow's attorneys sent a cease and desist letter to the folks at Cubby Tees who are making these T-shirts , according to TMZ:
Tebow's attorneys put it this way: "The Merchandise makes it appear as if Mr. Tebow actually endorses Cubby Tees and its products." Where that actually happens is a bit of a mystery.
The shirt, as you can see, remixes the Jets logo to a more Jesus-friendly theme. The "NY" is replaced with "MY" and the "JETS" is replaced with "JESUS." In addition, what's normally a football at the bottom of the logo is the "Ichthys," or "sign of the fish," often used to express faith.
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And yes, when you think of Jesus and the Jets together, you probably think of Tebow, but the shirt itself contains absolutely no Tebow references. I am neither a theologian nor a lawyer, but I don't think Tebow is the only one allowed to claim Jesus as "My Jesus." But again, I'm not sure exactly how close Tebow and Jesus are. I could be wrong about that.
It's not the first time something like this has happened, either. Jerseys like these have existed for years .
The Cubby Tees people specialize in fun sports-themed T-shirts ‒ others you may enjoy include this Rob Gronkowski special , or perhaps this new RGIII apparel . Given their other shirts, I wouldn't interpret this as necessarily making fun of Tebow, but I'd doubt that they were 100 percent religiously motivated, either.
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I'd have thought Tebow would've liked this shirt ‒ especially after he once endorsed people wearing No. 15 "JESUS" jerseys in Denver , as long as their heart was in the right place. Again, I don't see the infringement here ‒ there's no likeness of Tebow, and his name isn't on it anywhere. It seems to be for people who love the Jets and Jesus.
In the end, I think the cease-and-desist serves only to give loads and loads of free publicity to the Cubby people, and probably sells a lot of T-shirts. In the end, the people from Cubby Tees aren't backing down -- per the TMZ story, they sent a response to Tebow's representatives, stating that the design "shares nothing with Mr. Tebow except for promotion of a common Lord and Savior."
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