It is a stance I do not take very often, but a recent event forced my hand.

Everybody should have a general idea of the biggest names in sports, the biggest events in sports and a small history of professional sports.

You do not have to tell me who the starting goalie was for the St. Louis Blues in 1971 because even I, a Blues fan, do not know that.

But when Garth Brooks wears a jersey that says “Sanders 20,” people should not jump to conclusions and assume he is endorsing a Democratic presidential campaigner.

People assumed he was wearing this jersey to endorse Bernie Sanders, a fair mistake, I guess, but one that could have been avoided with some simple deduction.

First of all, Barry Sanders is the person whose jersey Brooks was wearing, which makes sense because Barry Sanders is a Hall of Fame running back who played for the Detroit Lions.

You may not need to know everything about him and his career, but you should know Barry Sanders, just his name and the fact that he played for Detroit.

Therein lies the next piece of the puzzle because in Brook’s Instagram post, which is where this whole debacle started, he mentioned that he was in Detroit.

Bernie Sanders has no big connections to Detroit or Michigan really, so assuming Brooks is wearing a shirt to support Bernie Sanders in Detroit is kind of weird and has no solid footing to stand on.

What does happen to be in Detroit, that is Sanders related, is the NFL team that Barry Sanders played for.

Remember earlier when I said Brooks was wearing a jersey? That is because it was clearly a jersey.

I cannot recall many times where athletic jerseys with candidates’ names on them were given out or worn by a lot of people.

Seeing a jersey like that should almost be an immediate telltale sign that it is an athletic jersey of some kind.

Look, Barry Sanders is not a household name for the average person, I get that, but jumping to conclusions about who someone is endorsing can make you look like a fool on the internet.

And not everyone may realize that this is a football jersey, but again, people, do not jump to conclusions.

Because when you do, these are the social media posts, courtesy of NBC, we get to laugh at you for:

“Nothing like supporting a communist to loss (yes the person said loss not lose) a few fans! How about going to a successful socialist country and doing some research? Oh yes, you can’t because there aren’t ANY successful socialist countries.”

“Please don’t make the mistake of getting political!”

Poor Brooks; he unfortunately got caught on the wrong side of coincidence, made worse by internet stupidity.

Dillan Schorfheide is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].