By Maya Palavali
Tuesday, July 5, one day after the Fourth of July shooting in Highland Park, the Dallas Cowboys announced on Twitter their partnership with Black Rifle Coffee Company.
The video post consisted of correlating both Cowboys and Black Rifle Coffee Company by including the terms “America’s Team” and “America’s Coffee”. The tweet quickly sparked controversy amongst Twitter users.
“Impeccable timing. Truly. Guys. This was literally 6 weeks ago IN YOUR STATE, and there was a mass shooting YESTERDAY,” replied Jon Helmkamp, the Sports Gambling editor for the New York Times.
Black Rifle Coffee Company is a veteran-owned business, founded in 2014 by former U.S. Army Green Beret Evan Hafer. The company is dedicated to supporting veterans, law enforcement and first responders.
“We develop our explosive roast profiles with the same mission focus we learned as military members serving this great country,” Black Rifle Coffee Company’s mission statement explains.
The Dallas Cowboys Owner, Jerry Jones made a statement amongst pressure from fans, continuing to support Black Rifle Coffee Company and its mission.
“Every cup of coffee in the stadium, every bag of Cowboys coffee sold, represents a step in fulfilling the Black Rifle mission,” Jones said in his statement to the New York Times.
The anger from many citizens across the United States is the usage of “our explosive roast profiles” along with roast names such as “AK Espresso” and “Murdered Out.”
The main concern is the timing and consistent verbiage, which the company addressed on Thursday, July 7.
“The issue is not the fact that they made this deal with this coffee company,” Fort Worth Star Telegram beat writer Clarence Hill said. “It’s more about the names of their coffees.”
“[We] timed [it] to coincide with the Independence Day holiday — America’s Team. America’s Coffee. America’s Birthday.” the company statement said.
The timing became awry when the Fourth of July shooting happened a day before the announcement, but the Cowboys and Black Rifle Coffee Company made the decision to continue with the news.
The company has many channels to interact with its customers, including merchandise.
Contrary to their beliefs on not profiting from tragedy, their merchandise was spotted both in the January 6 Capitol riot, and on Kyle Rittenhouse, the shooter responsible for the Kenosha shootings.
Looking at the Dallas Cowboys’ past actions and consumer base, the partnership with Black Rifle Coffee Company comes as no surprise.
According to a study by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the Cowboys have one of the top conservative fan bases with 14% being in the “very conservative” section of the study.
“American Facebook users are grouped into five political categories: Very Conservative, Conservative, Moderate, Liberal and Very Liberal,” the report stated.
The ongoing behavior of the Dallas Cowboys’ conservative beliefs can be seen in the 2018 instance of the team requiring the players to stand during the anthem or sit in the locker room, despite the NFL’s permission for the latter.
