Revis Coughed Up $50,000 For No. 24
June 18th, 2013
When Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik traded for star cornerback Darrelle Revis, by far the dominant question among Bucs fans wasn’t whether Revis would be ready for a Week 1 showdown with his former team, the Jets, in New Jersey. Strangely, there was a more popular question, “What number would he wear?”
The answer took awhile, but at virtually the same moment Joe was told by suits at One Buc Palace that Revis’ number hadn’t been decided, Dominik released the information on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
Welp!
Now according to Business Insider beat writer Cork Gaines, who is also the conscience on RaysIndex.com, Revis had to cough up $50,000 to get No. 24 from Bucs safety Mark Barron.
It is unclear if this is a record payment for a uniform number. In 1993, Rickey Henderson paid a new Blue Jays teammate $25,000, also for the no. 24. That is about $40,000 now with inflation.
Maybe the best story ever for uniform number bartering also came in 1993 when Mitch Williams “paid” two cases of beer for John Kruk’s no. 28. Williams only wore the number for one season before switching to no. 99.
To be fair, Cork learned this information from the diligent work of Brinke Guthrie, via the highly reliable UniWatch.com, which is infatuated with anything dealing with uniforms.
If anyone wonders why Revis had to buy the jersey number, it is an unwritten rule in professional sports that if a new teammate wants a jersey already assigned, then he must pay said player a ransom to release the number. The rule is pretty strictly enforced by the rank and file.
Joe hopes Barron put the cash to good use helping the local Tampa Bay economy.
June 18th, 2013 at 1:28 pm
Revis or the Bucs also have to pay the NFL for the remaining #24 Barron jerseys that are on the shelves.
June 18th, 2013 at 2:20 pm
@Justin
That’s why Adrian Peterson didn’t change his number last year. He wanted to change from 28 to 23, but would have had to buy $1 million worth of unsold jersey inventory, so he bagged the idea.
Of course, there shouldn’t be nearly that many unsold Mark Barron jerseys hanging around out there, so the price should be fairly reasonable for Revis.
June 18th, 2013 at 2:47 pm
Yeah. I hope Barron spends all that money at local small businesses to acquire food and FMCG goods to improve economy.
June 18th, 2013 at 3:00 pm
I wonder if Revis would be interested in my cell # ….lol
June 18th, 2013 at 3:56 pm
My neighbor, the sports troll, said Barron should pay Revis for coming to Tampa, to hide his poor pass coverage skills!
June 18th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
$50K? Chump change for guy banking $1 million per game.
What a deal!
June 18th, 2013 at 5:29 pm
Wow 50 stacks; that’s only 5% of 1 of his game checks…I think Deion Sanders said it best…Must be the Money…
June 19th, 2013 at 10:31 am
I believe there is a certain window during the offseason calendar that a player can change numbers / names without having the penalty regarding the unsold merchandise.
This came up with Chad Johnson / Ochocinco when he first changed his name. He had to play a season with a Johnson jersey as it was too late for them to stop the order on the replica jerseys.
June 19th, 2013 at 12:39 pm
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