Since his arrest and murder charge, brands have understandably been eager to distance themselves from NFL player Aaron Hernandez.
He's been dropped by his team and ditched by a major sponsor; his jerseys have been returned; he's been pulled from video games, and his photograph has been taken off the wall at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
This week, yet another brand has announced its desire to erase the murder suspect from its product line. As the Boston Herald notes, trading card and memorabilia company Panini announced Thursday that it has taken the 23-year-old out of its collection, replacing Hernandez stickers and trading cards with those featuring Tim Tebow.
"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," said Jason Howarth, the company's vice president of marketing, according to the newspaper.
Other than swapping Hernandez for the New England Patriots quarterback in future trading card sets, Panini announced on its blog that it has also printed more than a million "special oversized Tebow stickers" to replace Hernandez in the Official 2013 NFL Sticker Collection.
The company has encouraged fans to either download the new Tebow sticker for free online or swap their "unwanted Hernandez stickers" through the mail. Panini says that it will also be giving out the Tebow stickers at promotional events in the coming months.
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Panini's new Tim Tebow sticker (Credit: Panini)
According to ESPN, the company also "painstakingly removed Hernandez stickers from 500,000 of its sticker books, which were already produced but had yet to hit the shelves." A Hernandez sticker had been one of the 10 players' stickers that appeared in the book.
Hernandez, who has been charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd, is currently awaiting trial.
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