Jimmy Clausen shows off his ‘Catholics vs. Cousins’ national championship T-shirt

Jimmy Clausen, former Notre Dame quarterback and current Carolina Panthers' benchwarmer, is ready for the national championship and is perpetuating the stereotypes that go with it.

On Monday, Clausen tweeted out his national championship T-shirt, which labeled the game between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama, the "Catholics vs. the Cousins."

Catchy.

And small-minded.

So are we all to assume that all Notre Dame players are Catholic (Manti Te'o, what?) and all Alabama players are related because being from Alabama means you're inbred?

I know, I know, it's just a joke. Lighten up. I'm sure all the good folks in Alabama also think I'm taking this too seriously.

This shirt is a play on the "Catholics vs. Convicts" theme that reared its head in the 1980s when Notre Dame and Miami had a nice rivalry going. That meme is about as sophisticated as this one.

Pretty sure Clausen was listening to this after the shirt landed on his doorstep.

Clausen deleted the tweet after getting backlash, not praise, for tweeting it. He must have thought showing off his poor sense of humor would help him win over some of the Notre Dame fans who detested him when he was on campus. Remember, this is the same player who, while in college, was attacked in front of a bar.

And let's be honest, it's not necessarily the shirt that people should be angry about, but the lack of professionalism Clausen showed by retweeting it. It's offensive. Plain and simple, joke or not. And Clausen should recognize that as a professional athlete with 45,000 followers he needs to be a little smarter about what he posts because a lot of people respect his opinions. He's a role model whether he wants to be or not.

Luckily for Clausen, there are no Alabama grads on the Carolina roster, so he doesn't have to worry about any of the "cousins" coming for him.

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