Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan tried to do a good thing when he told reporters a couple of weeks ago that he would be changing his jersey number to No. 99 to pay tribute to Hall of Fame defensive lineman Warren Sapp. But Sapp, who was upset that Jernigan didn’t reach out to him before doing so, posted on Twitter that he wanted to stop Jernigan from changing his number to No. 99.
Now Jernigan, a little hurt by Sapp’s response, is sticking with his old number, 97.
“I’m going to be the bigger person,” Jernigan told ESPN’s Jamison Hensley. “He says what he wants to. He can feel what he wants to. At the end of the day, it’s all good. All I’m worried about is winning football games here in Baltimore.”
“Every now and then, you come across those type of people in life,” Jernigan said. “I just can’t worry about that. I’m not worried about that guy. I’m not changing my number. And if you don’t want it to be about him, it doesn’t have to. At the end of the day, it’s just a number.”
Maybe Jernigan needs to pick a different role model, someone who would gladly accept Jernigan wearing their number instead of being ungrateful.
