Shirt Tales: Brady's Season-Ending Injury Hurting Jersey Sales

New England Stores Feel Sales Impact Since Brady Was Hurt

Following Patriots QB Tom Brady's season-ending knee injury in Week One, many local apparel stores "were suddenly left with a bunch of Brady jerseys and no one who wanted to buy them," according to Anna Fiorentino of the Lawrence EAGLE-TRIBUNE. Sheri Curley, Store Manager of Olympia Sports' Haverhill, Massachusetts, location, said, "Ever since Brady's injury, people haven't been coming in to buy Brady gear. It's not like he won't be back though." Sporting goods retailer Thunder Sports President Mike McCabe "didn't wait to see if Brady jersey sales would drop: A week after the announcement that Brady was down for the season, so were the prices of his store's jerseys -- from $74 to $49." Fiorentino reported most local sporting goods stores said that "profit for Patriots gear as a whole has either decreased slightly or is in line with last year." The "exception is the Patriots Pro Shop at Gillette Stadium, where sales figures comparing September to a year ago show ... an overall 18[%] increase." Patriots Exec Dir of Media Relations Stacey James said that while most stores have "waited to stock their shelves" with Patriots QB Matt Cassel's No. 16 jersey, this season's "total revenue from the Cassel's jersey is even with that collected for Brady's jersey by this time last year" (Lawrence EAGLE-TRIBUNE, 10/30).