Aaron Hernandez has been cut from the New England Patriots, charged with first degree murder, faces additional weapons charges, and is in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. So things can't get worse for the former stud tight end can they?
It can. News has come down that Panini, a trading card and memorabilia company, has "painstakingly removed" over 500,000 Hernandez stickers from their collectible sticker books, and replaced his visage with Tim Tebow.
Jason Howarth, Panini's vice president of marketing talked about the decision to sever ties with the disgraced ex-Pat. "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."
Panini is not the only company distancing itself from Hernandez. EA Sports has removed him from Madden 14 and NCAA 14, while the NFL Hall of Fame has taken down an award-winning photo of him. The Patriots went as far as to hold jersey exchanges, in which fans could trade in Hernandez's No. 81 jersey for any other Patriots jersey of their choice.
Who can blame these spooked organizations? Hernandez has been fingered as the orchestrator of the grisly killing of 27-year-old semipro football player Odin Lloyd, whose bullet-riddled body was found not far from Hernandez's North Attleborough mansion.
Circumstantial evidence has piled up against Hernandez, with a suspected accomplice dishing information to police that led them to a secret apartment containing clothes Hernandez was caught on tape wearing the night of the murder. A shell casing from the weapon used to murder Lloyd was found in a vehicle registered to Hernandez, as was blue bubblegum that Hernandez was seen purchasing on surveillance cameras.
As for replacing Hernandez's sticker with Tebow, some have speculated Tebow could be in line to take his place on the field as well. It's more likely that head coach Bill Belichick will rely on Jake Ballard to fill the role, however.
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