Welcome to jersey handout day at Colorado with Deion Sanders. Jerseys are no problems, but a jersey with a number? Now that is an entirely different set of circumstances when you play for Coach Prime.
“Everything you do around here, will be earned. We ain’t giving you nothing! So you got to go get it and you have to take it”
When spring practice began at CU, it was made quite clear that in order to receive a number, you would have to first earn it. Here is how Sanders explained to his players how they would earn their number.
“Every week you are going to be judged. If you are balling out a coach might say, “coach I got a lineman that’s kicking but,”
“I’ll say let’s see the tape, if he’s kicking butt, he gets his number. So when you come back to practice on that Monday after the break he’s going to have his number,” said Sanders.
But earning your number doesn’t mean you’ll get the number you want. If two players want the same number, it will go to the player who is determined to be the better of the two. If you earn your number now, and a transfer comes in later and outperforms you, then you’re going to need to find a new number. Those are some of the rules that Coach Prime has, but that’s not all. There are some hard and fast rules that apply to everyone, no matter the skill set.
No one will wear the number zero. Zero equals nothing and Coach Prime doesn’t like the symbolism.
Whomever wears number one will be decided by Coach Prime, that’s reserved for the team’s best player.
Lineman will not wear single digits.
Unless you are really, really good, you will not wear a single digit regardless of position.
“Back in the day when we came up, single digits was that guy, right? It was him. It was who he was. How can you ask for number one and you ain’t the one,” Sanders said.
After hearing the rationale and hearing the rules about numbers players reacted to the news. Check out the video above to see what players told Thee Pregame Show about having to earn their numbers.
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