It was the season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs. Tailgates were in full swing and New England Patriots fans were set to watch their quarterback Tom Brady take the heavily-favored team to its fifth Super Bowl in eight years.
But in the first quarter of the first game, a hit by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard took out Brady's knee. Down he went for the season, and down went the spirits of the Patriots' fandom.
It was a blow for Brady and a blow for team, but Pollard's hit caused another unintentional injury: Local stores were suddenly left with a bunch of Brady jerseys and no one who wanted to buy them.
"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," said Sheri Curley, store manager of the Haverhill Olympia Sports. "The fans are still supporting the Patriots."
At Thunder Sports stores like the one in North Andover, 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.
So far the store has sold only 50 percent of its youth-sized Brady jerseys, and a mere 12 percent of adults.
"This year, we just hope what we have will sell," said McCabe, who also has stores in Sudbury and Wellesley.
But the injury train kept coming, taking out two other high-profile Patriots players with popular jerseys — a shoulder injury took out running back Laurence Maroney for the season and a torn quad muscle may end the career of safety Rodney Harrison.
"Every season, the Patriots have a few players out, but I can't remember a season where your starting quarterback, best safety and starting running back have all been out," said Brad Doyle, 23, an employee at the Athlete's Corner in Andover. "But they keep winning, they're still in second place in their division, it's a long season and anything could happen."
That's what the Patriots and local sports stores are counting on. Most say 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 shows show an overall 18 percent increase.
Stacey James, vice president of media relations for the New England Patriots, attributed the increase in profit to slower-than-usual but consistent Brady sales combined with sales of jerseys worn by replacement players like quarterback Matt Cassel.
While most stores have waited to stock their shelves with the jersey worn by Brady's replacement, this season's total revenue from the Cassel's jersey is even with that collected for Brady's jersey by this time last year, according to James,
"Brandon Meriweather, (who replaced Harrison), had a nice interception recently, so we should also see a rise in sales of his jersey," said James. "The number-one jersey selling in a week will always be the player who had the best recent games. For an injured player like Brady, his sales are still very steady, but there isn't that usual influence of game reaction where after a player does well, sales go up."
Injured reserve is nothing that Brady - and the brand he's made for himself - can't withstand. Coming out of the last year's undefeated season, the Patriots were ranked third most valuable NFL franchise by Forbes Magazine, and Brady was ranked seventh most marketable athlete by Sports Business Journal.
"Fan loyalty is not like the stock market. Sales spike up and down, but it does not equate to a precipitous drop in profit," said James. "If Brady was your favorite player before he was injured, he's still your favorite player now. I still see fans in (Gillette) Stadium wearing the jerseys of retired players like Andre Tippet and Steve Grogan. A true fan has a favorite player for life, and they wear those jerseys proudly."
There is, however, one potential threat to future sales of gear tagged with the names of injured players that can't be helped — not by a store's proximity to Gillette Stadium, by a break-out back-up player, or by loyalty of a true Brady fan like Doyle, said Jack Norton, Doyle's manager at Athlete's Corner.
"Tom Brady gear, and all Patriots gear, are luxury items now," said Norton. "The way the economy is, people just don't need jerseys. The fans will be back when things get better, hopefully by the time Brady's back."
