Mississippi State’s athletic director and Adidas have apologized for an obscene phrase on one of the baseball team’s practice jerseys.
The Bulldogs have new Adidas baseball practice jerseys that read “Viva Starkvegas” across the front. There are also small dots across the rest of the jerseys that spell different phrases, including one that is an obscene phrase referencing rival Mississippi.
Soon after pictures of the jerseys started appearing on social media, athletic director Scott Stricklin took to Twitter to apologize.
“This afternoon it came to my attention that a shirt provided to our baseball team by adidas has an inappropriate phrase written on it,” Stricklin posted. “This is completely unacceptable and does not reflect the standards and values of Mississippi State University or its athletic dept. For anyone who was offended by this shirt, as I was, please accept our apologies and rest assured that this has been rectified.”
Mississippi State spokesman Bill Martin said the school did not approve the design before its release. Michael Ehrlich, the Adidas director of public relations in the United States, apologized for the jerseys and said it was the company’s mistake.
The graphic “featured old artwork that was never presented to the university,” Ehrlich said by email. “This graphic does not reflect our brand values nor those of Mississippi State. We take full responsibility for this error and wish Mississippi State the best of luck during Super Bulldog Weekend.”
Mississippi State is in Starkville, which is sometimes jokingly referred to as Starkvegas. The Bulldogs host Florida in a three-game series this weekend at Dudy Noble Field.
