Every athlete is associated with a number. It’s almost like their personal branding and so many athletes see it as more important than money itself. For Michael, it was 23. For Dale Earnhardt, it was 3. Jackie Robinson will forever be associated with 42.
So what happens when a player moves teams and someone else already has that number? What if the number is retired (as is the case of Jackie Robinson’s Number)? Depending on the status level of an athlete, they will pay inordinate sums of money to get the number they feel they are owed. Lets take a look at some popular athletes who’s numbers weren’t available and examine the lengths they went to in order to change their digits.
Lee Evans of the Buffalo Bills paid then teammate Mark Campbell $20,000 for the privilege to wear number 83 on his Buffalo Bills Jersey.
Ricky Henderson has played on a number of baseball teams and has given everything from a guest appearance at an autograph session to $25,000 for the right to don number 24.
Roger Clemens, on his way up to Toronto to play for the Blue Jays, offered Carlos Delgado a Rolex watch for the rights to wear number 21. His subsequent requests for the number were denied by Paul O’neill of the Yankees and Andy Petite of the Astros – who both wore the 21.
Most younger players will bow to the veteran when they come a-calling for a specific jersey number, but the smart ones will ask for something in return.
One of the oddest cases of an athlete paying for the privilege to wear a specific number comes from the greatest basketball player who ever lived. Michael Jordan’s on again-off again presence in the NBA set the stage for one of the biggest uniform related fines that the NBA has ever set down. Jordan first retired in 1993, giving up the sport to pursue a career in baseball. During his time in the White Sox minor league system, he wore the number 45. All the while, the NBA mourned his loss and the Bulls Retired his jersey number as a memorial. Fast forward two years and Jordan makes a triumphant return, with his very own number retired, he is forced to play wearing the number 45 on the back of his Chicago Bulls Jersey. When playoff time came around, Michael put his foot down. He vehemently ignored warnings from the league about the potential fines associated with wearing a retired jersey number and when the dust had cleared he and the team owed over $100,000 dollars to the league in uniform violation fines.
So what is a uniform number worth? It depends on who you ask, but for most maniacal, superstitious ballplayers, there isn’t a price in the world they wouldn’t pay to be able to wear their favorite number.