The Dallas Cowboys have been criticized after announcing a new partnership with Black Rifle Coffee, the veteran brand popular with conservatives and gun owners that sells roasts with names like “AK Espresso,” “Murdered Out” and “Silencer Smooth.”
The Cowboys announced the partnership on Twitter on Tuesday with a video showing highlights of the team and a man in camouflage drinking from a mug with the coffee company’s logo on it.
“Welcome America’s Coffee to America’s Team,” the team said.
The announcement quickly caught on on social media, with critics noting that it came a day after a rooftop gunman killed seven people and injured dozens more during a Fourth of July celebration in Highland Park, Illinois, and less than two months ago. since a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 children and two teachers.
A Cowboys fan, Jackie Barrientes, 41, citing the Uvalde massacre, said she was shocked to see her team “partnered with a company promoting the gun that killed those children”.
Ms. Barrientes, who grew up in South Texas and continued to support the team even after moving to Baltimore, said in an interview Thursday that she is now considering cheering for another NFL team.
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A controversial partnership. The Dallas Cowboys were criticized after announcing a new partnership with Black Rifle Coffee, the veteran brand popular with conservatives and gun owners that sells roasts with names like “AK Espresso,” “Murdered Out” and “Silencer Smooth.” The announcement was criticized in part for its timing, a day after a deadly mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois.
Mrs. Barrientes, who criticized the Cowboys on Twittersaid in the interview: “I can’t find myself cheering for a team that is so tone-deaf, that cares so little about the fans, that they would do this.”
But other fans on Twitter defended the partnership, noting that Black Rifle Coffee regularly gives money to veterans groups, police officers and their families.
The company said in a statement Thursday that the announcement was long-planned and “timed to coincide with the Independence Day holiday — America’s Team. American coffee. America’s birthday.”
Evan Hafer, the founder and chief executive of Black Rifle Coffee, said in the statement that his company and the Cowboys “share an unwavering commitment to supporting veterans and first responders, and we look forward to a successful partnership and a great season.”
The company was founded in 2014 by Mr. Hafer, a former green beret and CIA contractor who has served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and two fellow veterans who have also served in those countries. This is not the company’s first introduction to sports partnerships. It recently announced deals with professional skateboarder Bucky Lasek and three NASCAR drivers.
The Cowboys did not respond to requests for an interview on Thursday.
Jerry Jones, the team’s owner, stressed the veterans in a statement on Wednesday. “Every cup of coffee in the stadium, every bag of Cowboys coffee sold, represents a step in fulfilling the Black Rifle mission,” said Mr. Jones.
The Cowboys have endured other controversies over the years, such as in 2018, when Mr. Jones said his players should be on the field before playing the national anthem and not stay in the locker room, which the NFL had said that it was allowed.
The team has also responded to growing public alarm about gun violence. In June, the Cowboys announced that the team would donate $200,000 each to two funds to support the families of the victims of the Uvalde elementary school shooting.
Black Rifle Coffee’s marketing lingo and embracing conservative causes have drawn criticism in recent years, such as when the CEO appeared to support President Trump’s efforts to ban travel from predominantly Muslim countries.
The company’s website states that it makes “freedom roasts” for “people who love America.” The Silencer Smooth blend is sold to the rest of the world in “rounds” or coffee pods. The Murdered Out roast is said to be “for all you night riders out there” performing “midnight” ops.”
His merchandise also surfaced during the January 6 attack on the Capitol. A man dressed in a tactical vest with plastic cuffs was photographed in the Senate Chamber wearing a baseball cap with the Black Rifle logo.
After Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teen who shot two people during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was released on $2 million bail in November 2020, he was pictured wearing a Black Rifle Coffee T-shirt. People on Twitter tweeted the image this week on the Cowboys account.
Black Rifle was criticized at the time, later saying it was not sponsoring Mr. Rittenhouse, adding in a video statement from Mr. Hafer that “we are not profiting from tragedy.”
That, in turn, sparked criticism from conservatives who said the company should have supported Mr Rittenhouse, who was later acquitted on all counts. The company estimates it lost between 3,000 and 6,000 subscribers, Mr. Hafer told The New York Times Magazine last year.
