Penn State football’s redshirt freshman kicker Joey Julius is already a star in his own right. Back in August, before he even stepped on the field, we named him your “New Favorite Football Player.” Now, after three games, Julius has proven himself a dependable starter after making several key field goals for the team. Not only has he captured the starting kicker spot, but also the hearts of the Penn State fans of all ages.

One heart that Julius captured was that of freshman David Friedman. The freshman, along with his friends Jack Bowman, Amanda Silverstein, Lauren Echausse, and Brenden Brendt, have created a Joey Julius t-shirt available now for purchase. All of the proceeds from the shirt sales will be donated to THON.

The front of the navy blue t-shirt features a kicker and ball silhouette with the words ‘Big Toe’ on top. The back features Julius’ name and number (99). The back also has the quote, “The hero we need, not the hero we deserve,” in reference to a similar quote from “The Dark Knight.” The shirts are currently on sale here for $20.

“My friends and I were watching the Temple game and we saw this guy line up to kickoff and he just pounded the ball with what looked like little to no effort, and we, like the rest of Penn State, fell in love,” Friedman explained.

This love prompted him to create a shirt for his friends to wear in support, and his friends who fell in love with Julius from the start all loved them.

“Initially we just made the shirts for fun, and then we went to the game with a giant fat head and poster and our banner, and then people kept asking where we made them and where to get them, so Jack and I decided since it was canning weekend, we would sell them for $20 and all the proceeds would go to THON!”

Though he currently isn’t involved with THON, he said the choice to donate proceeds to THON was obvious. “Everybody loves THON, and it seems like a great way help out a bit. NCAA is so strict with what their rules on student athletes in almost an insane way, so we figured we would donate to charity just because it is something really great out of something that isn’t (the rules of NCAA),” he said.

On the first day of sale, 26 shirts were sold. His goal of 50 was reached around 2 p.m. on the second day of sale. As of Monday night at 6:45 p.m., he has raised $460 and sold 52 shirts.

Friedman and his friends even got Julius’ seal of approval on Saturday at the football game. Together they sat at the front of the student section with a custom sign, all wearing their “Big Toe” shirts. The group also brought posters and a fat head of Julius. After the game, Julius approached them to take a selfie and said that he loved the shirts and thanked them for the support.

“We had a lot of the football team saying they thought they were great,” Friedman added.