The Dallas Cowboys were derided as tone-deaf after the football team announced a partnership with Black Rifle Coffee, a gun-themed roaster that sells blends such as the "AK-47 Espresso" and "Murdered Out."
The team announced its new partnership on Tuesday, July 5, just one day after a lone gunman opened fire on an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois taking seven lives and injuring more than 40 others.
It posted the news on Twitter, encouraging social media followers to "please welcome America's Coffee to America's Team."
Black Rifle Coffee's corporate image is built on its conservative politics and supporting veterans and much of its staff is comprised of former members of the United States military.
But the company courted controversy by openly supporting the policies of former President Donald Trump, including in a since-deleted blog post in which its founders supported Trump's proposed immigration ban on citizens of Muslim-majority countries.
Black Rifle Coffee has been advertised by Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, who has been photographed wearing the company's merchandise, as well as by multiple people who participated in the attack against the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, the day a mob of Trump's supporters attacked the nation's seat of government on the false premise that the 2020 general election had been stolen.
While the company has attempted to denounce the insurrectionists, its founder, Evan Hafer, has stressed that he does not believe that those who attacked the Capitol posed an actual threat to the republic.
Many have criticized the Dallas Cowboys as a result and accused the team of not vetting its partners.
The partnership also lies in stark contrast to actions the Dallas Cowboys took in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that has fueled much of the currrent nationwide debate on gun control.
After a lone gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in a grisly shooting that brought to mind the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, the Dallas Cowboys announced their role in a $400,000 donation to support victims and survivors in Uvalde.
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