Never Had the Makings of a Varsity Athlete t-shirt

In The Sopranos, when Uncle Junior looks across the dinner table and drops the infamous line, “He never had the makings of a varsity athlete,” it lands with all the grace of a brick through a windshield. Junior, unaware of what he’s saying, makes a seemingly harmless observation about Tony’s childhood athletic abilities — but Tony hears it as a personal attack on his manhood and his legacy. The whole table barely notices the comment, but it is this comment that sends Tony into an existential tailspin.

Junior keeps repeating it like it’s a compliment; Tony stews like a pot of Sunday gravy; and everyone else quietly decides to focus very hard on their plates until the storm passes.