Thousands Show Up to Trade in Ray Rice Jerseys

The Baltimore Ravens exchanged out more than 7,000 Ray Rice jerseys at a two-day event at M&T Bank Stadium on Friday and Saturday.

The event allowed fans to rid themselves of the troubled running back's jersey - as long as it was an officially licensed NFL product manufactured by either Nike or Reebok and sold by the Ravens Team Store online or at the stadium - in exchange for the jersey of another current player.

By 8 a.m. on Friday, there were already about 1,000 people lined up around the stadium.

The discarded articles collected by the team are expected to be sent to a facility that takes in scrap materials.

"The NFL licensed jerseys are not recyclable because of certain materials in parts of the jersey, so what we're going to do is offer them to companies who deal in scrap," team spokesperson Kevin Byrne told the AP. "We're not getting paid for it. We'll just give it to them, and they can do with it as they please."

Rather, the Ravens spent upwards of "six figures" to make this happen.

Byrne said the team handed out 5,595 jerseys before running out around noon on Saturday. For the remainder of fans who turned up for the event, they were given vouchers to be turned in for new jerseys at a later date.

"We anticipated over the two days getting about 5,000 people, so we got about 2,000 more," Byrne said. "We just felt it was the right thing to do, and that's why we did it."

Jerseys for quarterback Joe Flacco and wide Receiver Tory Smith were reportedly the most popular, though five other players were also available.