Former Sports Star Pays A Call On Unpaid Sweatshop Workers Frank Gifford Carries The Ball (And Cash) For His Wife’s Slipping Public Image

Perhaps the last place anyone would expect to find Frank Gifford, the sports broadcaster and former football star, would be in a 17th-floor sweatshop in the garment district.

But there he was Thursday - with $7,500 in cash - struggling to recoup some lost yardage and some of his wife’s public image. He came to the shop to make amends to 25 workers who had not been paid by its owner, who produced blouses under a clothing line named after his wife, Kathie Lee Gifford, the talk-show host.

The Giffords, already beset by allegations that exploited Latin American workers helped make the clothing line, faced new questions when workers at the sweatshop on West 38th Street went public with complaints that the manufacturer of the Kathie Lee blouses had repeatedly broken his promise to pay them the two weeks’ to four weeks’ back pay they were owed.

The Giffords said they were shocked to learn that the blouses were being made at a sweatshop, not far from Kathie Lee Gifford’s television studio, and that the owner not only owed back pay, but also failed to pay overtime, Social Security taxes and workers’ compensation taxes. Some workers said they earned just $250 a week for 60 hours’ work.

On her syndicated show, “Live with Regis & Kathie Lee,” she said, “I was physically sick to my stomach” upon learning about the sweatshop.

Gifford rushed to the garment district Thursday to give each of the workers three $100 bills to show that he and his wife were honorable and would not be party to exploitation and lawbreaking.

At first, the 13 immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries who were present couldn’t figure out what to make of this former running back for the New York Giants who towered over them. But when he distributed the money, several of the women hugged him.