Rusty Weiss
Hall of Famer Frank Thomas is taking his long-running grudge against the Chicago White Sox to a whole new level. The Big Hurt has filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against the Sox, Nike, and Fanatics, accusing the team and its partners of unauthorized use of his name and iconic No. 35 on the popular City Connect 2.0 jerseys launched this past April.
Thomas claims the club profited off his likeness without his permission or compensation, violating his right of publicity. He is seeking more than $50,000 in damages, along with additional punitive relief, for the “unlawful” sale of the jerseys.
The suit alleges the team ignored a cease-and-desist letter demanding they stop production and sales.
“At all relevant times, Frank Thomas’ commercial identity was extremely valuable and, as such, he exercised control over its usage in various ways, including, but not limited to, trademarking his ‘Big Hurt’ moniker,” Thomas said in his complaint. “Without his agreement or consent, [the defendants] profited by selling items using Frank Thomas’s identity for their own commercial purposes.”
Frank Thomas is suing the Chicago White Sox, Nike and Fanatics for selling City Connect jerseys using his name without receiving his permission or compensating him for it, per @royalpratt pic.twitter.com/XlMVXhyr6n
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 24, 2026
White Sox Sued by Frank Thomas in Escalating Feud
The move marks another escalation in Thomas’s increasingly bitter relationship with the only franchise he ever truly called home during his 16-year MLB career.
Once the face of the organization and a beloved star who delivered two AL MVP awards and a mountain of franchise records, the Hall of Famer now appears more estranged than ever.
Legal filings emphasize that Thomas is fighting not just for money but to protect the brand he built through decades of on-field dominance, suggesting the bad blood that has simmered for years continues to worsen.
He is alleging the team became “unjustly enriched” and the move to sell jerseys with his name on them “violates fundamental principles of justice, equity, good conscience, and fair play.”
I don’t know, man. I’m no legal expert, but I’m pretty sure the team that paid you over $100 million throughout your career has a right to market its players, retired or not.
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This latest legal action comes on the heels of Thomas brutally eviscerating the White Sox earlier this year over a tone-deaf Black History Month social media post.
The team highlighted “momentous firsts” by Black players in franchise history — spotlighting Minnie Miñoso breaking the color barrier and Al Smith as the first Black All-Star — but completely omitted Thomas despite his towering legacy as the first Black player to win back-to-back AL MVPs. Not to mention his ownership of nearly every major offensive record in club history.
“I guess the black player who made you rich over there and holds all your records is forgettable!” Thomas wrote on X. “Don’t worry, I’m taking Receipts!”
Apparently, those receipts include jersey sales. The Big Hurt may need to make up his mind, though—one minute he’s mad that they didn’t include him, the next he’s mad that they did.