The tragedy of Jasper Howard’s murder just took another twist having nothing to do with his killer.
A website has been prominently promoting tee-shirts and towels memorializing Jasper Howard – with the promise that “all proceeds benefit Jasper Howards [sic] child.”
Not cool, says Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Not cool at all.
For one thing, the Pennsylvania company, gamedaytease.com, appears to be violating University of Connecticut logo and licensing rules, and for another, the company is not registered as a charity with the state, and therefore can’t sell products this way. They have "failed to demonstrate authorization or permission," said a press release.
The shirt features a picture of Howard in his full football gear, plus his #6, the UConn logo as well as a very recent quote from Howard: “You gotta play every play like it’s the latest play you’ll ever play.”
Blumenthal held a Friday afternoon press conference calling on the company to either stop selling the shirts or face legal action. While he's all about protecting victims and providing for their families, we're pretty sure he's not okay with doing it under the radar.
On their website, the company describes themselves as “the group of kids who sat in the very back of the classroom shooting spit balls, cracking jokes and goofing off.” Their clothes are “guaranteed to get you laughs, cheers, jeers, double-takes, triple-takes, boos, high fives and applause,” though we doubt they expected to ever get any of those from Richard Blumenthal.
Our calls and emails to the company were not returned.
Local stores, including Bob's Stores, Huskyware and UConn Co-op have agreed to sell t-shirts appropriately.
If you want to donate in Howard's memory, UConn has established two funds, which you can learn more about here.
