R.I.P. Tom Brady’s year-and-some-change reign of terror as the best-selling jersey in the NFL, April 2016 - April 2017.
That being said, it took a superstar un-retiring and changing teams to his hometown Bay area (who may have stopped celebrating their second NBA championship title in 3 years, but probably not quite yet. Hey, if anyone can appreciate how great winning two championships in 3 years can be, it’s us, right?) to do it. Marshawn Lynch, one of the newest Oakland Raiders, has finally knocked Brady off the top of the sales charts. Beast Mode’s #24 jersey is now the league’s best-selling jersey for May 2017.
Here’s how the rest of the top 25 shakes out - it’s about what you’d expect, with the Patriots well-represented in the top 20.
- Marshawn Lynch (Oakland)
- Tom Brady (New England)
- Dak Prescott (Dallas)
- Ezekiel Elliott (Dallas)
- Deshaun Watson (Houston)
- Derek Carr (Oakland)
- Odell Beckham Jr (New York)
- Carson Wentz (Philadelphia)
- Julio Jones (Atlanta)
- Rob Gronkowski (New England)
- James Connor (Pittsburgh)
- Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay)
- Matthew Stafford (Detroit)
- Antonio Brown (Pittsburgh)
- Khalil Mack (Oakland)
- Julian Edelman (New England)
- Colin Kaepernick (San Francisco)
- Von Miller (Denver)
- Matt Ryan (Atlanta)
- Dez Bryant (Dallas)
- Russell Wilson (Seattle)
- Jason Witten (Dallas)
- Cam Newton (Carolina)
- Drew Brees (New Orleans)
- Adrian Peterson (New Orleans)
Oakland’s also a sweetheart in everyone’s “Who can dethrone the Patriots?” list-icles this summer - and it’s not just the Beast Mode signing. The Raiders spent six of their nine draft picks this spring upgrading their *ahem* not-exactly-elite defense, including snagging cornerback Gareon Conley in the first round, almost-linebacker-sized safety Obi Melifonwu in the second, and defensive tackle Eddie Vanderdoes in the third, and it’s not like their offense needed a whole lot of tweaking to begin with - the Raiders were 7th overall in points scored in 2016, and just one more touchdown would have made them top-5-caliber.
In the meantime, some doofus on the Pulpit is already way too amped for this Patriots-Raiders game in Mexico City this season, so now if you see tons of black and silver 24 jerseys down at Estadio Azteca in November, you’ll know why.