The veteran selling the “Life is great” T-shirt donned by Patriots head coach Bill Belichick says he has seen a huge uptick in sales and plans to donate all the profits to the Navy SEAL Foundation.
“It’s a worthwhile charity, and I don’t want to make a profit here,” Jim Amann, a former SEAL, said.
“This represents more than me and my company, so that charity will get any and all profits from that shirt.”
Photos of Belichick wearing a shirt appeared Tuesday afternoon on social media. The shirt has an illustration of an armed man in a turban being attacked by a military dog as he’s being chased by a soldier carrying a rifle. Below the illustration, it says: “Life is great.”
The post has sparked some blowback at Belichick from Twitter users saying it glorifies violence in the Middle East.
The shirts are sold on Amann’s site, called tridentk9.org. Amann is a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles, and as a Navy SEAL he was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan with his military dog Rocky.
Amann’s company, Trident K9 LLC, provides police and military K9 equipment and training. He said selling shirts has never been his intention, and after the photos went public he saw a 500 percent increase in web traffic.
“This has opened up my website to a lot more people,” he said, with a laugh. “This has all kind of caught me off-guard.”
Amann said he has received emails and voicemails since the story broke, and that 95 percent have been positive. He maintains that he has no idea how the Patriots’ skipper got hold of one of the shirts, but says he is glad he did.
“It’s always great to see someone who is respected to support our troops in any way,” he said. “He’s well known for being a supporter of the military, and I think that’s great.”
