SCOTT SIMON, host: If you happen to vacation in southern Nicaragua, don't let on about what happened in the Super Bowl. This week, hundreds of poor children in the city of Diriamba, Nicaragua received shirts and caps proclaiming New England Patriots champions of Super Bowl XLII. Shirts and caps were printed in advance of the game to be worn by players and fans at the victory celebration thereafter. Except, of course, there was no celebration for the Patriots this year. The New York Giants won the Super Bowl 17-14.</s>SCOTT SIMON, host: Every year, the National Football League gives shirts and caps printed for the team that winds up losing to World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization that gives them to children in Latin America and Africa. Miriam Diaz of World Vision says the children are the winners. If the Patriots came down to Diriamba, they might get a ticker tape parade. Within a few months, you might see children wearing t-shirts saying my parents went to President Giuliani's inauguration, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.
All the pre-printed t-shirts proclaiming the New England Patriots Super Bowl champs have made their way to Nicaragua now that the Patriots have lost.