Get ready to buy some half-shirts, Cowboys fans. Cowboys Merchandising Limited president Bill Priakos told NBCDFW.com that Ezekiel Elliott will have his own Cowboys crop-top t-shirt that will hit shelves very soon.
You can see Elliott pull a Cowboys half-shirt out of a box at the beginning of this interview:
Why is this something the Cowboys are doing?
Elliott first rose to prominence at The Ohio State University thanks mostly to his prodigious skill as a running back. He took over as the team's starter as a sophomore in 2014, carrying the ball 273 times for 1,878 yards and 18 touchdowns, also adding 28 catches for an additional 220 yards. The year before he was eligible to be drafted, he was already one of the best running backs in the country.
He was also known for something else, though: wearing a crop-top jersey.
Zeke was of course not the only college player ever to wear one of those jerseys, just one of the most recently well-known ones. The NCAA made a rule that disallowed them starting in 2015, though, so Elliott returned to wearing a full jersey during his junior campaign.
The longer shirt didn't seem to affect Elliott's performance in any way whatsoever. He ran 289 times for 1,821 yards and 23 touchdowns as a junior, adding 27 catches for 206 more yards as well. He was considered one of the top prospects in the NFL Draft.
On the day of said draft, Elliott showed up at the red carpet outside the draft in Chicago wearing ... a crop-top button-down shirt.
Ezekiel Elliott rocking the crop top with a bow tie. #NFLDraft2016pic.twitter.com/E22JRMlRUs
— Bears Talk (@CSNBears) April 28, 2016
Later that night, the Dallas Cowboys made Elliott the No. 4 overall pick, hoping to return to the power running game that led them to a 12-4 record during the 2014 season, which was fittingly when Elliott himself first rose to national prominence.
Now, the Cowboys are apparently planning to hawk crop-top Elliott gear. You can't make this stuff up.
