With a secondary market that may or may not be robust, the safest way to get value for any Patriots jerseys bearing the Hernandez name will be to return them this weekend to the Patriots ProShop at Gillette Stadium.
Hours of operation are 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET Saturday, and 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Sunday.
The goal of the exchange isn’t, we’re told, to cleanse the market of Hernandez jerseys. If that were the case, the team would have come up with a broader window than two days on a July weekend at the shop located at the place where home games are played.
Instead, the primary purpose is to give parents a chance to replace jerseys purchased for children with something the children will be proud to wear.
The jerseys harvested by the Patriots won’t be resold. Instead, they’ll be destroyed or, if possible, recycled.
Regardless of the actual or perceived motivation, it won’t be cheap for the Patriots to hand out essentially free jerseys. While the out-of-pocket cost is far less than the retail value, every customer who gets a free jersey is one less who’d buy a new jersey at retail price.
Given the 2012 switch from Reebok to Nike, the offer provides if nothing else a chance to get rid of a Reebok jersey with the Hernandez name and to take home a Nike jersey with Brady or Gronkowski or, yes, Tebow on the back.