I want to start with Giants rookie linebacker Abdul Carter, who evidently has no shame in asking the NFL Legends for their jersey number. After being drafted by the Giants third overall, he said he wanted to wear number fifty six, the retired number of Giants legend LT himself, Lawrence Taylor. Taylor quickly rejected that request, saying quote, get another number. End quote. Carter then tweeted, quote the worst thing he could say was no, my stance don't change. LT is
the goat, nothing but respect. This just gonna make me work even harder. I love it. End quote. After that rejection, Carter then moved on to his number at Penn State, number eleven, retired by the Giants in honor of quarterback
Phil Simms. While Simms said he would have given the oka, he was ultimately outvoted by members of his family and rejected Carter's request as well, about which Carter tweeted, quote, Damn, at this point, I'm gonna be out there with just my last name on my jersey, no number, JK, JK, It's all love. Just want to play football. End quote. Actually, ab Du Carter, you're lying you don't just want to
play football, you want the number that you want. It's not a crime, but ab Du card because I'm quite sure you're going to be great, because you're a baller, and somebody said you were right next to me at the next game. I didn't even notice you. My man, my bad, my apologies. Let me say this to you. I want you to imagine, Abdu Carter, although I totally believe you when you say it was out of respect, because why would you want to wear the number of a scrub? Why would you want to wear the number
of an average player. Of course, you're respecting the individuals whose numbers you reached out to grab, you know, in Phil Simms case, to a lesser degree, because that's just the number you wanre in college. Whereas with LT it was out of respect for his greatness. With you playing in that position, I'm quite sure it was out of respect. But ab dual Carter, respectfully, just imagine that you played
fifteen to twenty years in the National Football League. Imagine that you recorded over one hundred and thirty two sacks. Imagine that with the great linebackers in NFL history, the Dick Dick Butkus's of the world and others. You know, the Jack Hams, Jack Lambert's of the world and so many others, the Ray Lewis's of the world, the Ronnie Lotts of the world. The list goes on and on.
Imagine you yourself have that kind of career spanning fifteen to twenty years, and the rookie who's never played a game calls you, after all of those years of greatness and service which warranted your number being retired and raised to the rafters of a stadium and lives in the franchise lore that somebody who's never played the game came to you and said, can I wear your number? You sure you will feel about that. You know they respect you because your number is retired and you earned it.
But you wouldn't feel some kind of way about somebody who's never played the game asking you for that, asking you for the right to unretire their number so you could wear it, and you've never played the game and you've never proven a damn thing on a professional football field.
I need you to think about it that way, bro, Get your own number, make your own way, and then get that number retired, and see how you would feel if somebody came and asked you to have the number lowered from the rafters just so they could wear it when they've never played the game. After it took you an entire career to earn that number being retired in your name. That's all I'm saying. I'm sure you meant no ill will or anything like that. I just think you need to look at it from a different lens
instead of the lens you're looking at it from. Penn State ain't the National Football League. As much as we respect the Big Ten, Penn State is not the National Football League. Bro, It's just not