Revenge of the Birds
The Arizona Cardinals selected Carson Beck out of the University of Miami in the third round. He has since attended every OTA and minicamp the team has offered.
And now, he has his mind set on either being the starter this year, or at the minimum, becoming somebody’s backup.
RELATED: GET TO KNOW QB CARSON BECK
Beck came to the Cardinals after losing the National Championship Game in college football in his familiar #11 jersey.
Players view jersey numbers in two different categories: a) it’s lucky, so I must have my number, and b) I am on a pro team getting paid bank, so I am extremely happy to be wearing any number.
Now with the Cardinals, Beck is seen with the number 19. Why?
For one, why isn’t he wearing his college number? Another good question is, who in the heck wears #19? Except for #9, #89, and #99, hardly any team has a player who has a “9” behind it. They just don’t. Yes, there is an occasional #59 or #79, but that is not the norm. And there isn’t any superstitious reason for not accepting a number with a “9” behind it; it’s just one of those unknown things in life, like the fact that the last piece of bacon in the pack is all twisted and goofy.
It’s not all superstitious like in baseball, where nobody steps on a line. In football, the nines just don’t get picked over.
But here is Beck, fresh out of college football with a 1-9 on his jersey. Somebody tell him to take another number. Geez.
Perhaps Beck doesn’t really have a regular number. A lot of guys bitch and scream about not getting their number.
Look at the Cleveland Browns. They traded their elite pass rusher, Myles Garrett, to the Los Angeles Rams and received three draft picks and the exceptional pass rusher Jared Verse in return. He has worn #8 ever since the Pee Wee league. He arrived in Cleveland, and backup QB Dillon Gabriel, who started six games as a rookie last year and is in the mix for the starting role this year, has the number 8. Guess who is now switching to new digits? It ain’t the guy who nails opposing quarterbacks.
Beck wore #11 at Miami, and everyone associated him with this number. His Miami team had national acclaim and came close to winning the national crown.
Right now, Arizona has 90 players under contract as training camp looms. And teams retire numbers of their best players all the time. The franchise is 127 years old and is the second-oldest continuous pro football team in North America behind the Toronto Argonauts. Surely, they must have an album full of retired numbers that are no longer available to wear.
The reality is, the Cardinals only have five retired jersey numbers: #8 (Larry Wilson), #40 (Pat Tillman), #77 (Stan Mauldin), #88 (J.V. Cain), and #99 (Marshall Goldberg).
The NFL has strict guidelines with standardized jersey numbers....
