The University of Michigan continues to expose its football players to the most aggressively uninteresting personalities in sports. First there was Michael Jordan serving as the team’s honorary captain for the season opener against Hawaii at the Big House; two weeks ago, Tom Brady returned from exile to soak up some cheers, play catch with coach Jim Harbaugh, and give the players a big speech; now, Derek Jeter has brought his poor spelling and message of fealty to brands directly into the locker room:
“In the spirit of our Forged For Greatness partnership between Michigan and Jordan Brand, we created your ‘RE2PECT IS EARNED’ tees together this week for a reason,” Jeter’s missive begins, before urging players to be humble and so live up to the values exemplified by Jeter and his brand managers deliberately misspelling the word “respect” so as to incorporate his uniform number.