Okay look- I don’t want to do this at all for a number of different reasons. 1. I love the Detroit Red Wings and everyone who has a passion for the Red Wings is usually alright by me. Especially if that passion pushes you so far to produce an entire documentary based on the greatest sports era of my life. 2. I don’t really care THIS much about the issue at hand I am about to address here shortly. Honestly, this is not that big of a deal. 3. I am hungover as balls right now. All I want to do is lay down, put on the Tigers, and pass out. But here we are.

The Russian Five documentary staff are saying I’m slandering their name- which is actually laughable and I have to address this publicly. Basically to give you all some context, they just released a RETIRE 91 Fedorov shirt that is eerily similar to the one I released in January. So naturally, I called them out for it.

I put this on my story, along with videos of me in a stupid Red Wings helmet ski-cap basically just saying “hey I am not trying to start shit but it would have been nice if you could have asked to use the design or given me some credit.” Legit that was it. Calmly called them out. Here’s the video.

You can tell this is serious business (lol) because of the stupid fucking hat I have on and the fact I didn’t care enough to erase the word “Octopus” from covering my face for the first 10 seconds of the vid.

When they (@therussianfive) released the shirt, they posted this photo:

I commented this

Riveting stuff. I know.

So, around 9:30am yesterday, The Russian Five slid into my DM’s.

Great stuff here. They didn’t want to address it on Friday when I first posted the videos and comment you read above, but when the comment started getting likes, people posted about it, and commented on the photo, they decided it would be a good idea to reach out to me.

I never responded to this DM. I was busy yesterday doing life shit and then one of my best friends got engaged and I got drunk. This Russian Five t-shirt dispute wasn’t even on my radar yesterday, but I was definitely on theirs…since at around 4:30pm they threw an entire legal book at me…via DM’s of course. Check these fucking things out. Just to give you a heads up there are 7 of these bad boys and I am going to address all of them directly, so if you’re over this stupid t-shirt dispute at this point I wouldn’t blame you at all if you exited out of this article and moved on with your life. But to everyone else, buckle up, this is pretty funny in my opinion.

Lmao- first off, don’t shoot. I didn’t answer in the middle of the day on a Saturday because quite FRANKly, I didn’t care that much to dedicate time in my day to have a conversation with you. I didn’t ignore you, I was busy doing more important shit like celebrating a buddy’s life achievement. Secondly, that is probably true, he may have never seen it, but I know someone on your staff had seen my design, saw “your” design before it was released…and decided to do nothing. Someone knew of my design, saw the new design, knew it was exactly the same, and said fuck it let’s sell it anyways. That’s just plain fact.

This is a lie. Because look at this from January 31st…

I sent it to you directly and you liked it. So this proves a couple of things- not only does this prove you had the design sent directly to you, it also proves it is not only accessible on Instagram like you stated in your overly aggressive DM from above. It lives on a webpage that you had in your possession.

But wait! There’s more. Here is that post they were talking about, it does lead with a Fedorov photo, and slides over to the design…but check this out, they liked it when I posted it!

Cannnnn’t make this shit up! So now I assume the new defense will be “We didn’t click the link and we didn’t swipe right to see your design.” Cool guys, very cool!

Calm down. I wasn’t even going for the so called metaphor “hanging up the skates.” He’s been retired for 10 years now it’s not like he’s just hanging them up. They’ve been hung. This has nothing to do with the so called “oldest metaphor for retiring in hockey” (lol nice sentence). It has to do with showcasing Sergei’s iconic skates. I didn’t say you took “my metaphor” (hahah that is so stupid I can’t stop laughing at it) I am saying you took my idea of showcasing his bomb-ass iconic skates. Which you did, cause it’s the exact same design I sent to you 3 months ago. So slander my balls you fucking losers.

Hey dipshits, let’s take a look at every single Russian Five member content I post…ready for this?

I TAG YOU IN EVERY SINGLE PHOTO I EVER USE OF YOURS OR IF IT FEATURES A RUSSIAN PLAYER. I don’t not give credit to other people who sourced the content if I actually know who sources it. Did The Russian Five production studio take all of those photos from the 90’s? If not, then why haven’t you tagged the specific photographer or media source? Yanno why? Cause that would be fucking insane. And that’s not how Instagram’s work. If I ever use content from someone else and I can directly relay it to a source, I tag them. So no, not every picture I put up of McCarty slugging beers is sourced because I genuinely don’t know where it came from. I made the account to celebrate Detroit sports and I’m not gonna not share bomb ass photos just because I’m nervous I can’t directly source it to someone. Don’t ever call out the content on my page again. But since you seem to be in the business of splitting hairs- let’s.

From April 9th, my page:

April 26th, your page.

Let me guess, you didn’t see that one either.

It’s too bad you honestly think my life revolves around your documentary/a 25 dollar t-shirt. If you think I called you out on your shit as some sort of lucrative scheme to make more money- you’re out of your mind. Champagne Athletics is a passion project, I barely make any money off this shit. I profit roughly 4-5 dollars with every t-shirt sale and since I called you out I’ve sold ONE more shirt. ONE. So if you think this whole dance was for some crazy shock tactic to spurn sales- you’re off. Like another planet off. Another stratosphere off. MY “AGENDA” 😂😂😂😂😂. I know you’re in the movie business but that is next level dramatic. Oscar Award winning dramatic.

I called you out because that design was my idea. You saw it. Liked it. And recreated it to profit yourself. Plain and simple. And please quickly remind me what offer still stands? Did you offer me something? Please elaborate on this still standing offer. Keep throwing big words at me, I’m really shaking in my boots over here Russian Five.

I didn’t call you because I could have cared less about having a conversation with you. Yesterday I got coffee and had a working meeting concerning my actual salary paying job with my boss, had lunch with my fiance, then went to an engagement party and got drunk in celebration of one of my best friends and the next chapter of his life. The idea of a conversation with you idiots crossed my mind at noon when I read that DM and was out of my brain by 12:01pm, never to return again. So take your conversation and shove it. And keep inferring until the cows come home, it’s working out really well for you.

No. And I kindly ask you never fucking DM me again. Delete the comment yourself.

Keep selling the shirt- I genuinely do not care. I am way more honestly concerned about raising awareness and pushing the Red Wings organization to retire the number 91 than I am about my t-shirt sales “agenda” (😂). I am going to keep following you guys because I love the Russian Five and your content. I am too big of Wings fan not to support the documentary, the actual players of the Russian Five, and the people who support the doc. And the only reason I am doing this is because you came at me with 7 aggressive paragraphs on a Saturday afternoon accusing my blog of being slanderous and calling 90% of my content stolen. All I have done for you guys is support you, like every single photo, repost your photos with you credited and tagged, help you gain followers, and offer to promote your brand further. Seriously, you know the amount of people I have driven to your page? And all you can do is steal my design and then call me and my page libelous? Big ole fashion fuck you. Fuck you guys. I hope the doc does well cause it’s great for the Red Wings brand but whoever runs your social and sent me those messages can fuck off.

This really is a shame. There is no reason we shouldn’t have been great partners in generating awareness for such an awesome story. But, that’s all dead to rights at this point.

How is that for a response? Does my offer still stand?

#lgrw 🍾

– Frank