He may have been considered the best overall player in the 2016 NFL draft, but not everything has gone Jalen Ramsey’s way. When the Jacksonville Jaguars were assigning numbers to rookies Ramsey got No. 38. He didn’t care for it.
So Ramsey worked every angle he could for a new number, finally nabbing No. 20 and announcing it on Twitter Thursday.
20-20 vision headed into this thang!!
I think it's time for a new tradition in Duval. #20Savage #blessed pic.twitter.com/46nTgky95z— Jalen Ramsey (@jalenramsey) June 21, 2016
The number he wanted was 23, already worn by reserve safety James Sample. Ramsey figured he could buy the number from Sample, as often happens, but the second-year safety out of Louisville wasn’t budging. Even when Ramsey’s offer got to $30,000, according to ESPN.
Sample must really like that number. Last year as a rookie he wore No. 36. He started two games and played in four, recording eight tackles and one pass defense. Sample, a fourth-round pick in 2015, is a player the Jaguars were very high on last season before they put him on injured reserve because of multiple injuries, including a forearm issue he’d been dealing with since the preseason.
The bad news for Ramsey and that number is Sample will likely make the team and have no reason to worry about $30,000 when he’ll make plenty of cash and maybe start in the defensive backfield along with Ramsey. Sample will make $525,000 this season as long as he makes the team.
“Me and him talked about it, but I’m going to be wearing No. 23,” Sample told ESPN a month ago. “(There was) no offer he could give me. Money isn’t the issue.”
Obviously not.
While that may seem like an outrageous sum, plenty of other players arriving at new teams have paid that and more for their number of choice. Clinton Portis once paid a fellow Washington Redskins player $38,000 for No. 26. Darrelle Revis paid Mark Barron $50,000 in Tampa Bay for No. 24. In 1995 Deion Sanders bought Alundis Brice a new BMW to get No. 21 with the Dallas Cowboys. When Eric Decker was signed by the New York Jets he paid a tight end $25,000 for No. 87.
Dez Bryant sued by Texas politician
Dez Bryant had a rough, injury-filled year with the Cowboys last season. Evidently he took his frustrations out on his house. The only problem is he didn’t actually own the house.
Bryant rented the house from Texas state senator Royce West from 2013-2016 and was not a very good tenant. West is suing Bryant for $100,000-$200,000 to cover damages to the house and the time it takes to repair it, which will keep West from renting it out.
Dez Bryant leaves Senator's home filled with "trash and feces," lawsuit claims #nfl https://t.co/VdPmhK01I9 pic.twitter.com/ID9qSSnfJu
— oddslink (@oddslink) June 24, 2016
What kind of damage? According to the Dallas Morning News the house was “littered with trash and feces, missing blinds and shutters, with cracked windows and blackened carpeting.”
If you’re like me, you look at that list and the first thing you think is, “Feces? How… feces? I hope he has a dog, for God’s sake.”
Two former players in major legal trouble
Former Cowboys running back Joseph Randle had plenty of issues last season before the team finally cut him. Instead of getting some real mental help and trying to resurrect his NFL career, he instead got thrown in a Kansas jail and threatened a deputy.
Randle was in jail for causing a ruckus at a local casino and backing his car into three people. For threatening the deputy Randle will face a “felony count of criminal threat.” That puts his total Kansas felonies at three, but the month’s not over yet.
Former Cowboys player Joseph Randle faces charge of threatening deputy https://t.co/LIqYI1fWve
— AP NFL (@AP_NFL) June 22, 2016
Randle played in six games with the Cowboys and started all of them. He carried the ball 76 times for 313 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 4.1 yards per carry.
Things are a little worse for former Detroit Lions cornerback Stanley Wilson II. Wilson was shot while trying to burglarize a home in Portland, Oregon. When the cops arrived, they found him in a backyard water fountain completely naked.
Was he naked when he was shot? Did he ditch his clothes for some reason? Is robbing houses naked a thing? In Portland? That kind of makes sense, actually.
Former NFL player Stanley Wilson II tries to break into house naked, then is shot by homeowner https://t.co/MydMD5sPQW
— NY Daily News Sports (@NYDNSports) June 23, 2016
Wilson is being charged with first and second-degree attempted burglary and first and second-degree trespassing. His injuries, according to police, were not life-threatening.
Wilson is the son of former Cincinnati Bengals running back Stanley Wilson who was suspended from playing in Super Bowl XXIII after being found in a cocaine-induced stupor in his hotel room the night before the game. He’s currently serving 22 years in prison for a theft of his own. At least he didn’t get shot and, I presume, was captured fully clothed.
