Athena Pictures/Getty Images
Oxford United soccer player Cameron Brannagan
The world recently marked the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and remembered the 2,977 victims who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks that unfolded in 2001. That included the passengers on United 93, a flight that was inadvertently referenced on a jersey released by an English soccer team that swiftly apologized after realizing what it had done.
The vast majority of Americans are all too aware of what unfolded on September 11, 2001, a tragedy that also spawned dozens of tales concerning the selfless heroes who sacrificed their lives while saving others during one of the darkest days in American history.
That includes the people who were aboard United 93, which was scheduled to fly from Newark to San Francisco before it was hijacked by the four terrorists on the flight.
Some of the passengers on board were aware of the attacks on the World Trade Center, and they ultimately prevented the plane from striking its intended target (thought to be the Capitol or the White House) by storming the cockpit before the jet crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, claiming the lives of everyone on the flight.
Most people in the United States are familiar with the flight number that also lent its name to the movie that chronicled what transpired in the cabin, but there are at least a few people in the United Kingdom who need a history lesson based on a jersey that was released by an English soccer club.
Oxford United apologized for selling a “United 93” jersey a week after the 25th anniversary of 9/11
I’m going to assume most people reading this aren’t intimately familiar with Oxford United, a soccer team that currently plays in the EFL League One (the third tier of the country’s hierarchy) after being relegated from the EFL Championship upon the conclusion of last season.
The club has a history stretching back to 1893, and it recently decided to honor those roots with the designs at the center of the “Campus Collection” that was released on Friday morning. That line of apparel included a jersey with the number 93 under a “UNITED” nameplate, which, well…
Oxford United
It was a fairly innocuous oversight, and while there may not have been anything inherently offensive about the jersey, The Guardian reports the entire collection was taken down from the team’s store just a couple of hours after it launched before the club issued an apology.
Lesson learned.