Warren Sapp: Jernigan didn’t seek my advice, can’t wear my number
Remember a few days ago when we told you about Warren Sapp and his refusal to let Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman TImmy Jernigan switch his jersey to No. 99 in Sapp’s honor?
If not, here’s a refresher: Jernigan, the third-year defensive tackle, wore No. 97 his first two years on the team. But he unveiled a new jersey number last week during OTAs, donning 99 in honor of Sapp, telling reporters he grew up watching Sapp and wanted to model his game after the Hall of Famer. When Jernigan arrived in Baltimore, Chris Canty had 99, but with Canty no longer with the Ravens, Jernigan was able to make the switch.
The Ravens tweeted the news, and Sapp responded, “How do I stop this?”
While some theorized the old-guard Sapp was protesting out of school pride, because Jernigan went to Florida State and Sapp went to the University of Miami, Sapp told PewterReport.com it had nothing to do with the college rivalry.
It’s actually more petty than that.
“I was introduced to him while he was at Florida State by a mutual friend of both of ours,” Sapp said. “I don’t want to call that person out, but he is a great friend of mine. So I reached out to the kid (Jernigan) and said, ‘Well here is my (phone) number,’ and then he calls me and reciprocates (exchanging numbers). I told him before he left for the draft, ‘Whatever you need, if you want to work out, do a little bag drills whatever you want, just let me know when you come to South Florida or I’ll come to Tampa or wherever you want to meet me at.’
“So the draft happened and he had one of those things happen at the draft like I did, where you go a little lower than where you expect to have went [Jernigan was a second-round pick]. So after that went down I placed a text message and a call to him and said, ‘Listen son, now your career takes off. It’s not where you are drafted, it is what you do after you are drafted that make a career. You can’t have a career until you start one. The way to start one is, go to work. So I just tried to give him some encouragement since I know what that is like to be sitting there and having the world say things about you that makes you almost question yourself. I wanted to give him some reinforcement and say, ‘Hey there were 11 guys picked before me and not one of them can stand and say they have anything on me.’”
At this point, Sapp actually looks like a good guy: if he really offered to work with Jernigan, and he called him after the draft to offer encouragement, those are nice things. But Sapp continues, and we learn that since Jernigan didn’t show enough deference, calling to let Sapp know he wanted to switch to No. 99, Sapp wanted to shut down the change.
“That was the last conversation I had with the young man (in 2014),” Sapp said. “So for someone to say, ‘Hey, I want to pay tribute to someone, and I have their phone number,’ I would think you might want to try and call that person and say, ‘Hey dawg, I was thinking something…’ You know what I am saying?
“I’m not just trying to hold up my standard – I’m only the fifth defensive tackle first-ballot Hall of Famer in NFL history – the ones before me were Bob Lilly, Merlin Olson, Mean Joe Greene and Randy White. I am in a company of five, so when you talk about me, you better bring the other four with me because that is the standard that I held myself to.”
And at this point, Sapp has kind of lost us. What do Merlin Olsen and Mean Joe Green have to do with Timmy Jernigan wearing No. 99 to honor a guy he admired as a kid?
“Joe Cullen, the old D-line coach that was down in Tampa, is in Baltimore now, and I have already had four conversations with him about coming up to Baltimore,” Sapp said. “So how am I not going to have a conversation with the guy that wants to put a number on his back? That’s not my number. He (Jernigan) put my name in it (the story). And to put my name in it, makes it personal to me.”
So let’s say Jernigan had called Sapp and told him he wanted to switch to No. 99, what would Sapp have told the younger player?
“Go out and make a name for yourself for you,” Sapp said. “Don’t go and use a first ballot defensive tackle that you will now be judged against. Are you kidding me? Who signed up for that?”
So Jernigan should wear the number of a mediocre defensive tackle for the time being? Is that the message here?
Again: for a guy who hasn’t had much in the way of good press in the past 18 months, you’d think Sapp would have welcomed this little feel-good story. But alas.
