The Draw Play

Remember Subway’s 5-dollar footlong deal? Maybe one of the best deals in fast-food history. Even with Subway food having such a low ceiling, the 5 dollar footlong was goated. You might think it went out of style thanks to inflation and corporate greed. Nope. Jayden Daniels killed it. Blame him.

Joking aside, we have our newest form of very stupid copyright fighting. DJ Pickett, a current LSU cornerback, decided on #5 for his jersey number. That was Daniels’ number during his LSU year, in which he won the Heisman. Daniels’ camp sent a cease-and-desist letter to LSU regarding the use of the number, claiming that it felt disrespectful and Jayden’s legacy should be subject to more honor.

If you are thinking: “wow, that seems kinda petty”, you’d be right. The more you look into it, the more petty it becomes. LSU has retired 5 jerseys, but only truly retired one number. #20. Every other number is available at the coach’s discretion.

To be honest this makes perfect sense to me. Football only has so many numbers to wear, and programs (especially ones like LSU) have a lot of great players go through that are deserving of honors but would needlessly crunch the available numbers if each one got retired. Numbers are numbers, I always found the idea of a number being retired rather stupid to begin with. I know a number is often associated heavily with a player’s personal brand, but still.

Does Daniels even deserve to have his number treated with such reverence? I don’t think so. Compare him to Joe Burrow, whose number 9 is also not retired but has not yet been used since he left. Joe Burrow led LSU to maybe one of the best college football seasons ever. He won the Heisman by the biggest vote margin ever and the National Championship over Clemson. He also won a ton of other awards that year.

Daniels won the Heisman too and a few of those other smaller honors. That’s about it. He led LSU to a 9-3 record, lost in the playoff to Georgia, then got to beat up Purdue for consolation. Is this a good season? Yes. Worthy of the historical record. Was this so special a year that nobody should be allowed to wear the same number as him? That seems kinda ridiculous. Daniels can stand proud of his 2023, but filing legal paperwork against the school because you feel disrespected over a number is so petty.

It’ll look even worse if the Commanders have the season they seem to be headed for. Man the vibes over there are rough.