Aaron Rodgers has done a lot of things right so far in his short stint as a jet setter, saying a lot of smart things in his press conference and generally looking, for the time being, like he’s perfectly happy entering the New York City cauldron.
This was the smartest:
He rejected Joe Namath’s offer to borrow No. 12.
Now, hats off to Joe Willie: It was an incredibly generous offer to loan his number to Rodgers, who wore it every second he was an NFL player in Green Bay. It’s probably a testament to how long Namath has been famous for — and the rare ease with which he handled that fame 99 percent of the time — that it didn’t even strike him as a silly gesture.
“I’m sure Rodgers loved being there,” Namath told WFAN’s Brandon Tierney and Tiki Barber in January. “Yes me Wants He has to wear his number. We’ve established ourselves and have a real respect for our numbers, and Aaron Rodgers, God Almighty, yes! It would be great to have him in New York.”
Rodgers clearly appreciated the offer but knows that no matter what he might do as a Jet, the No. 12 will always be associated with just one player. He chose No. 8, Cal’s old college number.
“For me, 12 Broadway Joe,” Rodgers said this week, “and I didn’t even want to go down that road. I’m excited to get back to my college number.”
Smart move.
Of course, it would be a little upsetting to see someone so closely associated with the number 12 Rodgers sport a different number. Uniform numbers aren’t supposed to be part of the romance in sports. They were originally designed to coincide with the batter’s place in baseball’s batting order. They became popular in sports like soccer where they made it easier to follow the action by slapping numbers on the players’ backs.
Numbers were meant to be a great mathematical art.
It didn’t work that way of course.
Numbers aren’t just important, they’re sacred. Babe Ruth was / is / forever will be 3. Wayne Gretzky is forever 99, same with Michael Jordan and 23, same with Joe Montana and 16. A player isn’t just a player, it’s his number, and if he’s good enough and great Enough for an appropriate number of years, is he Become This number is on a wall in a stadium, football field, rink or skating rink.
And sometimes, the best is associated with two numbers.
Reggie Jackson, for example, who was already well on his way to becoming a Hall of Fame #9 with Oakland and Baltimore then secured a rushing pass there when he turned 44 kanky (which he also wore as an Angel and in his second outing as a sportscaster). Jordan has only been wearing a 45 for a few weeks, but who would you think of if you saw the odd 45 Bulls jersey walking around? Kobe Bryant was a Hall of Fame player who won three titles as a No. 8; He was a Hall of Fame inductee and won two more titles as No. 24.
He’s seen LeBron James go back and forth five different times between 23 and 6. He’ll never own either number – 23 belongs to Jordan forever, 6 is Bill Russell’s number from now until the end of time – but it’s still totally normal to see him in either the two numbers.
This is the strange thing, right? When switching numbers, it does not always follow that they will look like … right. Take Montana. He was stellar in his two years in Kansas City, and brought the Chiefs to the brink of a Super Bowl in 1993. But he couldn’t take with him 16 — at Kansas City, he’ll be Lynn Dawson forever — and 19 only seemed. .. Well, strange to him.
Phil Esposito wore 7 Royals in his 12-plus years with the Blackhawks and Bruins, but no pray he was getting when he was traded to the Rangers in ’75; This figure will belong to Rod Gilbert for the next 5,000 years. He worked with 5 and 12 before settling on 77. It was a clever ploy. But it still looks wrong.
What will Rodgers look like at 8?
Well, if he was holding the Lombardi Trophy aloft in that number, he was probably born to wear it. For Jets fans, anyway.
FAC blows
Fans are urged to show up early for the Mets-Rockies game next Sunday at 1:40 p.m. at Citi Field, where Bartolo Colón will throw the first pitch on the seventh anniversary of his home run. There is no truth to the rumors (so far) that if he throws a strike he will start that day too.
Knicks Heat on a Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden? Yes please.
Am I the only one who has spent some time wondering what the Islanders would have looked like this season with Barry Trotz behind the bench?
I have to admit: I had May 1st as a senior under Jacob DeGrum Walk off the mound in the middle of the inning. And as Warner Wolfe He will say: I am Still Lost.
Whack back at vac
Jonathan Segal: This may be the year the Knicks buried their MSG ghosts. It’s good enough, clutch enough, firm enough. Tug McGraw, God rest his soul, used to say, “Gotta believe it.” Would you settle for “oh you want to believe?”
unemployment: I’ve been here 20 years and can count on about three fingers how many times I’ve seen a Knicks fan this optimistic. It’s a welcome change of pace.
John Toomey: Mike, if you hear about GoFundMe’s effort to purchase Aaron Hicks’ contract, please let me know so I can get my house back in order.
unemployment: The Yankees are clearly banking on Phil Rizzuto’s old standby when a struggling Yankee steps into the square: “Worth.”
@employee, regarding the Knicks and Pat Riley: It would have been great to see what would have happened in 1996 or 1999, for example. He probably has a very different landscape than a free agent, too.
MikeVacc: A quarter century of Knicks history was transformed by a single fax machine buzz. surprising.
Alan Hirshberg: He suddenly looked eerily like Mets Buck Showalter’s Luis Rojas Mets.
unemployment: This is the point at which the columnist’s constitution asks me to remind you that a) it’s early, and b) it’s a long season… though it seems only fair that you should worry at least a little.