It’s not uncommon for a player to charge a new teammate to take the number off his jersey. But it is uncommon for the charge to be $200,000. And yet that’s what Maurice Jones-Drew says that’s what he was asked to pay when he wanted to wear No. 21 in Jacksonville.
Jones-Drew said today on SportsCenter that No. 21 has always been his preferred number, and that when the Jaguars selected him in the 2006 NFL draft, he wanted to wear the same number he had worn at UCLA and Concord De La Salle High School. Unfortunately, the player who had the number wasn’t interested in giving Jones-Drew a discount.
“There was a guy by the name of Terry Cousin who had 21 in Jacksonville. I asked him politely, ‘Can you just allow me to have the number? It’s been in my family for a long time.’ He said, ‘For a small price.’ I’m thinking he’s going to say, like, dinner, going to say, like, a couple bucks. He said $200,000 and you can have it,” Jones-Drew recalled.
Unsurprisingly, Jones-Drew turned that offer down, and he wore No. 32 in Jacksonville. But Jones-Drew is now in Oakland, where he was able to get the No. 21 jersey, and that’s what he’ll wear this season. Without having to pay for it.
