“People who have autism and Down syndrome are very joyful. They have good spirits,” Ted Karras says. “To be able to help make things good for them is really special to me. When we got into the league, you could see what the Renies were doing. It was a no-brainer to do some good.”
Doing this good began this spring in the backyard of Karras’ Fort Lauderdale, Fla., home in the wake of his agreement with the Bengals in the first hours of free agency. A deal universally hailed as smart for a veteran, versatile interior lineman paid off as recently as last Sunday’s win in Pittsburgh in which Karras called the play of the revamped offensive line “elite.”
To say he has been the line’s most consistent player gets a lot of agreement around Paycor Stadium.
Naturally, Karras was in the middle of it all Sunday as the center and that’s where he was in this conversation with neighbor Sydney Maitland, a customer sales rep for Imperial Headwear, a company servicing golf and country clubs. Karras thought a hat would be a nice gift for the guys and asked Maitland if she could design one.
“Ted started talking about Who-Dey and how they call Cincinnati ‘Cincy,” and how the Bengals are cats and I let my mind wander,” Maitland says.
It crashed into success. The word “Cincy,” written in script with three short cat claw marks slashed underneath the “Y.” Understated yet universal.
“I began to see it on posts and on-line,” says Maitland of her design that went from pool side to mainstream. “It became a thing.”
It became such a thing that the hat is now going for 35 bucks a pop at TheCincyHat.com with all the proceeds and the possibilities going to the Village of Merici. Colleen Renie is hoping that the demand is enough that it could translate into jobs for either some of the 22 residents or those people they help who live off site.
Maybe packing hats into boxes to send out. COVID claimed a lot of jobs in the developmentally disabled community
Colleen adopted Jason 43 years ago when he was 22…
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