The Houston Chronicle’s David Barron reports retailer Old Navy is hawking t-shirts that declare the Houston Texans to be “1961 AFC Champions”, a rather neat trick for an expansion franchise that began play in 2002.
Employees at Old Navy stores in Houston apparently got wind of the problem as early as Saturday. Only one Texans shirt remained available on a mannequin at the company’s Meyerland Plaza store.
When a customer purchased it, the sales clerk said, “You know this is wrong, don’t you?” When he replied that he did, the clerk said, “I bought one, too. I knew they’d find the error and pull them off the shelves.”
There were other problems with the NFL T-shirt line, which is available in local Old Navy stores and on the company’s website. The Cleveland Browns shirt proclaimed the Browns as 1964 AFC champions; the Browns, who now play in the AFC, won the NFL title that year.
Also, shirts for the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs proclaimed them as NFL champions for the 1968 and 1969 seasons. Both won Super Bowls that year, but they did so as members of the AFL.