Dallas Cowboys Reportedly Involved in Sweatshop Exploitation

Before you put on your Dallas Cowboys hoodie and throw over a scarf emblazoned with the insignia of "America's Team," consider where it all came from. You may want to walk out the door cold. 

ESPN's Outside the Lines did what they do best, and that is cover a story on the fringe of the sports world that you might not otherwise trouble yourself with. In this case, the story revolves around sports apparel, and it is in no way on the fringe of human interest. Rather, it is smack dab in the middle of it. 

According to the investigation, Kol Malay leads the typical life of a Cambodian female working in one of the apparel factories in Phnom Penh. While typical to Cambodia, her life would seem like a nightmare to most Americans, certainly those that would purchase many of the products that she produces through arduous and painstaking efforts. 

ESPN's Mark Fainaru-Wada and Justine Gubar tell her story in intricate detail. Her lot in life is to make clothes that are then exported to America where they are purchased by the Dallas Cowboys, the only NFL team that handles their own merchandise.

Malay and others like her typically bring home about $100 a month. The video segment of the report shows the living arrangements that many workers live in. To say that they are modest would be a gross misappropriation of the truth.

A studio apartment on the fringe of the suburbs is modest; these are inhumane circumstances. Two people often share what would be the size of an American bathroom. 

Speaking of bathrooms, going to one at work is a luxury not many would dare take advantage of. While we carouse around the water cooler to talk about Tony Romo, Tim Tebow or any other sports figure, there are those in Cambodia that are afraid to be reprimanded for relieving themselves. 

As stated in the report, they are treated as hands and arms that produce clothing, not hearts and minds that need emotional respite. These are not the problems of the Cowboys or any other company that utilizes the same production service. 

No, their problem is the bottom line, and welcome to a capitalist society. Money talks and that means a great deal of people suffer. It's life from the top down and the peons are getting a great deal of it en masse. 

The hungry Cambodians come cheap, and in our day and age, cheap is better than right. The Cowboys look at the sticker price of the incoming goods but never ask the pertinent question. If you walk out and get an iPhone for $10, you would very well ask what gives. 

Fainaru-Wada and Gubar make note that this issue is not just the Cowboys' problem so we must do the same. Nike and other clothing giants have come under fire in the past for allowing the clothes they sell to be made under working environments that continue to egregiously violate human rights. 

Social responsibility is considered well down on the list of things companies care about with fiscal advantage near the top. 

It's time to stop being so lethargic. It is easy to say that the Cowboys are not the only ones doing this, or that you as a person can't uplift someone thousands of miles away. Nike, Adidas and the Cowboys are just names, the people deciding how things are done can be swayed. 

Unfortunately, it will never take a sad tale like the one suffered by Malay and others. The only thing that ever changes anything anymore is money. The more you buy; the more things stay exactly the same. 

The issue is that human beings are being treated as less than, just so making clothes can be cost-efficient. 

Well, this is not human-rights-efficient, and that is what should matter. Unfortunately, that is never the bottom line and never what concerns the masses. 

Nothing will change as we flock to the water cooler and talk up our sports teams. Meanwhile, Malay and others are dreaming of the day that they can get a regular bathroom break. 

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