A massive clerical error briefly slashed prices on former Colorado star Shedeur Sanders’ apparel, leaving hopeful shoppers frustrated.
Exactly one day after the start of the NFL season, the league’s official team shop apparently made a significant mistake. While an online shop making a clerical error is not breaking news, the price point on a few particular items is interesting. The NFL shop, which is ran by Fanatics, might need to come up with an answer before the Shedeur Sanders fans ask the question.
For about an hour on Thursday afternoon, all of Sanders jerseys were marked down to $39.99 from their original $149.99. This discount was applied to the brown, white and color rush styles. This was not even an availability issue. Most jerseys include a full-size run.
In 2025, shortly after the NFL Draft, but after players declared the number they would wear, the NFL shop put most rookie jerseys on sale. However, the discount was closer to $20 or $30 off, not the $110 off that was mistakenly marked on Thursday. Colorado Buffaloes, Cleveland Browns and Sanders fans are likely to be annoyed by this news.
A glitch that could be costly
In the immediate short term of learning this news, many fans are likely to run to NFLShop.com only to find all Sanders jerseys are currently full retail ($149.99). As mentioned, this ‘mistake’ came before someone discovered the problem. While testing this price drop, the price automatically corrected in the shopping cart at about 4:10 p.m. ET. About 40 minutes after identifying the price drop.
An interesting detail is that the NFL Shop includes in the shopping cart a rough estimation of how many people have bought this item in the last 24 hours. At the time the price changed back to the full retail price of $149.99, the NFL Shop website claimed 545 people had purchased this item in the last 24 hours.
It would be illogical to believe that all 545 were bought at the discounted price. But most were probably purchased after news of Sanders' jersey being discounted hit social media. With Deshaun Watson announced as the Browns' starter two weeks ago, and the Sanders No. 2 jersey being available for a couple of months now, there would be no reason to believe even most of that number were full-priced sales. At a discount of $110 off, NFL Shop conceptually could have lost around $55,000 in under an hour.
The big question is why did this happen
If we think of the price change process like it’s the old Staples “easy button”, we can convince ourselves it was just a random accident. If an employee simply hits the $110 off button by mistake, that could be plausible. Undo the mistake. No harm, no foul.
That would make sense if there weren’t decades of NFL merchandise data to suggest it might be something else. During this short window of clearance priced Shedeur Sanders jerseys, there was one other jersey holding at that same price. A Browns Myles Garrett jersey. Garrett makes sense as he was traded and is no longer on that team.
When a player is no longer an active member of his previous team, retailers struggle to sell that jersey. Especially at the full retail price. For decades, traded player jerseys were marked way down. The issue is, Shedeur Sanders was not traded and there seems to be no reputable reports that the Browns are even considering such a move.
The business side of the sport would suggest the NFL Shop maybe knows something the rest of us do not. Or at least that is how it will play on the internet once fans catch wind of this merchandising ‘glitch’.
The other significant question makes this Shedeur Sanders specific. It wasn’t a selection of several player’s jerseys that were discounted to $39.99, just Sanders and discounted items for obvious reasons. So why did Sanders’ jersey get marked down so aggressively? Even if it was by accident.
What will Shedeur Sanders' fans say?
Conspiracy theorists will believe the NFL Shop knows something that reporters and insiders are unwilling to speak about. Fans will begin questioning the coaching staff and decision makers, again. Likely pushing a narrative that is not found in any sort of sports-related reality. All because of a possible pricing ‘accident’. The problem is Shedeur Sanders has the last fan base you want to pull an “oops, my bad” tactic on.
Thanks to the NFL Shop, the sports media world will now be inundated with yet another unfounded rumor based on a logic that does not exist in football. There was no data to suggest trading a popular young quarterback in the first two years of his very team-friendly contract has ever happened in the modern era.
Yet "someone" accidently just breathed life into an idea that was baseless and illogical from the start. An idea that has never made any sense. Whether it came from a certain Cleveland radio host or a Sanders fan who is a fan of a different NFL team.
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