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Philadelphia’s Register of Wills let her daughter sell Eagles T-shirts from her City Hall office

There are plenty of places to buy Philadelphia Eagles gear ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl. The Register of Wills office in City Hall is not supposed to be one of them.

Philadelphia Register of Wills Tracey Gordon after winning the 2019 Democratic primary.
Philadelphia Register of Wills Tracey Gordon after winning the 2019 Democratic primary.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer

How much Philadelphia Eagles exuberance is too much?

Turning a City Hall conference room into a makeshift T-shirt shop: That’s too much.

But that’s what Tracey Gordon, the city’s Register of Wills, did at lunchtime Friday, turning over her public office to her daughter, Jai Gordon, who runs the company Gymratz Athletics.

Employees at the Register of Wills office received an email just before 10 a.m. Friday from the office’s human resources coordinator, urging them to “stop by the conference room at 12:00 p.m. to check out some Philadelphia Eagles gear and of course because it’s ‘Black History Month’ there will be some African American collectables on sale.”

A flier left at every employee’s desk advertised “Super Bowl Apparel,” including $18 T-shirts, $25 sweatshirts, $30 hoodies, and $12 T-shirts for children.

It included a photo of a man wearing an “It’s a Philly thing” T-shirt with an Eagles logo.

Gordon, a Democrat seeking a second term this year, declined to be interviewed about turning over space in a public building to her daughter’s private company.

Malik Boyd, Gordon’s director of communications, confirmed that the event happened Friday. In a statement, Boyd said the email to employees “was sent in error.”

“Individuals in the office who requested sporting items supporting the Philadelphia Eagles from a private business were encouraged to pick them up during their lunch break,” Boyd wrote. “This message was misinterpreted and communicated throughout the office-wide communication by an exuberant employee. This has been addressed internally.”