Jayden Daniels appears to have completely bungled the jersey number situation. Daniels felt disrespected when his former college allowed cornerback DJ Pickett to wear the same no. 5 that he had worn when he won the Heisman. Daniels proceeded to send the school a cease and desist to stop them from using his name, image and likeness and asked for his trophy back.
If there was any question the Streisand Effect was at play here, just read this quote from Pickett’s father via NOLA.com:
“Honestly, man, this right here makes us want to wear the number more,” Damien said. “LSU has not said anything to us about the number, about us being able to wear the number. Coach (Lane Kiffin) has been in full support of my son through this process.”
Picket was originally promised the number while he was being recruited by Brian Kelly. You may recall that Kelly was Daniels’ coach at LSU. The current coach, Lane Kiffin, simply decided to make good on the promise. To hear Pickett’s father, it sounds like the entire situation could have been avoided if they had just looped Daniels in at some point.
Communication is key
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“If we would have been told during our recruiting process and they had said, ‘Hey, No. 5 is not being issued. We can’t promise you No. 5, but we can talk to Jayden and see what Jayden has to say. If he gives his blessing, he does. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t,’ (we would have) moved forward,’‘” Damien said. “If we were to have had a situation like that, it probably would not have blown up like this.”
If there had been any communication, we wouldn’t be in this mess. But there wasn’t, so now Pickett’s family is (justifiably) reacting like Michael Scott when Pam told him not to date her mom.
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So that’s where we are today. If anyone had just spoken to anyone else like an adult, some sort of compromise might have been made. Instead, I’m sitting here thinking about how silly it is to retire a number when there are so many players on a college football roster that sometimes guys wear the same number at the same time.
For instance, look at the 2023 LSU Tigers team. Senior quarterback Jayden Daniels and sophomore cornerback Laterrance Welch both wore no. 5. Or the season before when Daniels and senior safety Jay Ward both wore no. 5. Or the season before that when Ward and a freshman quarterback named Garrett Nussmeier both wore no. 5.
It actually makes you wonder how it took so long for lawyers to get involved.
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