Former Florida and New England tight end Aaron Hernandez is being featured as Mr. July on the 2014 Gators calendar and the Patriots calendar from the same company, despite sitting in jail on charges for the murder of three men.

The image, which surfaced on social media in recent days, was initially suspected to be fake. However, the University of Florida commented on the matter Tuesday, stating that the image would have been approved months before the calendar was printed.

Hernandez was arrested for murder in the summer of 2013, around the time that the approval process would have been taking place. 

Florida spokesman Daniel Apple said that the calendar was produced by a third party and not the university. The school cannot pull it from shelves now that it is for sale and was approved by the university, so it will stay on shelves until the distributor decides to pull it. 

"There are thousands of Gator products in the pipeline for approval at any given time and it's not common practice to re-review them once they have already been approved. We have since notified the licensee that it is no longer approved," said Apple.

Apple also added that the university only became aware of the calendar's release on Monday.

The Patriots, on the other hand, stated that they are not commenting on matters with Aaron Hernandez.  

The calendars, which feature the tight end in both his Gators gear and his Patriots gear, are still available through Target.com. Stats on the footballer are also included on both versions. 

24-year-old Hernandez has been in jail since June of 2013, charged with the murder of Odin Loyd, a friend of Hernandez, whose body was found within half a mile of his home. The trial for the murder of Loyd starts in October

Hernandez is also charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the drive-by shooting of two men, Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, charges for which he will stand trial next year.

He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.