Many companies have erased any connection to Aaron Hernandez in recent weeks, and yet another pulled out on Thursday.
Panini, a trading card and memorabilia company, confirmed to ESPN on Thursday that they had removed Hernandez’s image from over 500,000 sticker books produced for the upcoming NFL season. They join companies such as Cytosport (the makes of Muscle Milk), Puma and EA Sports, among others, who have ended sponsorship agreements or pulled Hernandez from their products in recent weeks.
The company recently produced 1 million Tim Tebow stickers, which they will use in place of Hernandez. They plan to hand the Tebow stickers out at events and have agreed to send one to any customer who already received a Hernandez sticker in a pack.
“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, Panini’s vice president of marketing.
Check out a screenshot of the new Tebow sticker below.
Photo via Panini America
