Ugghhh. Today in "jokes gone awry," Portland's new women's soccer team the Thorns decided to pull a t-shirt with the slogan "Feelin' Thorny?" after fans took to Facebook to complain that the shirts inappropriately sexualized the team.
Timbers/Thorns owner Merritt Paulson didn't take to the complaints too well at first. According to Prost America, Paulson initially tweeted:
“not worth engaging with someone who thinks a t-shirt is a statement. my statement on women’s sports was launching the Thorns”
(Snap.)
And when a commenter noted that the Feelin' Thorny shirts were "as tasteless as selling a shirt at Timbers games that says 'Got wood?'", he responded:
“and you can wear a “got wood?” shirt if you’d like for your PTFC capo’ing. coming soon ”
The tweets have since been scrubbed, and team officials have stopped sales of the shirt, according to the Oregonian.
Meanwhile, there's a slightly desperate Facebook group devoted to getting the shirts back, though the team has given no indication that bringing the shirts back is an option.