Stefon Diggs paid an absurd amount of money to get his new jersey number with Texans
Diggs had to pay for his new number, but it's not as much as it could have been.
By Jake Beckman
It’s a big week for Stefon Diggs. He was traded from the Buffalo Bills to the Houston Texans, received a good contract, and after nine years in the NFL wearing No. 14, he’s changing to No. 1.
As we know, those number changes don’t come easily. There is a lot of money that gets thrown around when a player decides to make that kind of a change, and the price tag for Diggs was a cool $100,000.
Other players have been scared away by the price to change numbers, but not Stefon Diggs.
In 2021, the NFL made a rule about players wanting to change their numbers and now they have to buy out the unsold jerseys. Since Diggs doesn’t have a Texans jersey yet, that money would have to come from the incumbent Texan with the coveted No. 1, Jimmy Ward.
Sometimes when there's a jersey number change in #NFL, it comes at a price. New #Texans wide receiver Stefon Diggs obtained the No. 1 jersey from veteran safety Jimmie Ward, for roughly $100,000, per league sources @KPRC2 And Ward is back to No. 20, his old #49ers number @KPRC2
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) April 4, 2024
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this. JuJu Smith-Schuster wanted to keep the No. 9 when he was signed with the Patriots, but Matthew Judon had that number and his own personal tax to go along with it.
He can have it for the price of a lambo I got the 100k https://t.co/pFVU8iaqHJ
— Matthew Judon (@man_dammn) March 23, 2023
It’s the same price for Diggs as it would’ve been for JuJu, minus a Countach. Knowing this, it sparks a couple of questions about Jimmie Ward’s business acumen.
Does he not have the same business mind as Judon? It sure seems like he could have tried to milk the deal with Diggs for at least a Mazda Miata, a Chevy Malibu, or even a Nissan Cube. He didn’t have to go crazy with foreign cars, just something affordable.
The second is about Diggs' part in this. If he was as big of a problem in the locker room as some people would have you believe, was Ward’s lack of negotiation a ‘good faith’ move? Maybe he wanted to get on Stefon’s good side, knowing that he could potentially be volatile. If that’s the case, Jimmie deserves a round of applause or a Nobel Peace Prize for thinking ahead.
The bottom line is that Diggs shelled out a good chunk of cash for a jersey that he’s only going to wear for a single year. It makes you think… is that why he went with the No. 1?
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