Trading card company removes 500K Aaron Hernandez stickers
As Aaron Hernandez continues to lose endorsements, one trading card company is trying to scrub itself of his image.
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1 min read
After former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was charged with murder, his endorsement deals quickly dried up. He lost contracts with Cytosport and Puma.
Now, as Hernandez languishes in a 7-by-10 foot jail cell while he awaits trial, Panini, a trading card and memorabilia company, is trying to scrub itself clean of any Hernandez presence in its products.
As ESPN reports, the company “painstakingly removed” 500,000 Hernandez stickers from its sticker books. To replace that spot in the book, the company has produced one million Tim Tebow stickers.
Though the Hernandez stickers have been produced, they haven’t been released to the public yet. But if somebody comes across a Hernandez sticker, the company will send that person a Tebow sticker instead.
"We felt strongly that making these changes was the right thing to do, for Panini and our products but, more importantly, for our fans and collectors," Jason Howarth, Panini's vice president of marketing, told ESPN.com.
Panini also follows the lead of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which recently removed a picture of Hernandez, and EA Sports, which erased Hernandez from its upcoming video games.
