The rise of Sergio Romo’s shirt

I will give you guys one t-shirt on one dude worn in the middle of one particular huge city-wide event. Then, you turn it into blog-noxious political talk for the next week.

Here’s your topic: Sergio Romo’s “I Just Look Illegal” shirt.

Aaaaaaand go! Start debating!

Seem a little extreme? The rest of the world wide web doesn’t, as the topic of how appropriate the San Francisco Giants’ closer’s apparel was during yesterday’s world championship victory parade sprang forth numerous articles and discussions.

Sure, fashion sported by some of the players was widely noted. What can I say? My team is quite stylish.

But the focus was not solely on Pablo Sandoval’s bright-orange pants, Hunter Pence’s newly-shaved visage, or Brian Wilson’s incredibly large beanie and incredibly-low v-neck shirt.

The focus has been on Romo’s navy blue tee. And that focus has started an all-out debate.

As NBC Bay Area has pointed out, this isn’t the first time that the beloved pitcher has sported attire that show his pride in his Mexican roots.

And why not? Good for him for loving is heritage. It wasn’t like he stepped up to the podium at City Hall and said: “Giants fans, I’d like to take this time to you about the message across my chest.”

And, personally, I was way more interested that my team had just won the World Series to care what any of them were wearing.

But other venues believe Romo was trying to make a political statement and used the Giants parade as a platform. There are activists who praised Romo for his choice of shirt.

Others believe that the Brawley, California native was out-of-line for using the celebration as a stage for his political opinion.

Either way, online sales of the same shirt shot through the roof just over night.

It isn’t certain whether Romo meant to make a statement. Either way, he has definitely started a fashion trend.