Fans across all levels of football have grown accustomed to quarterbacks wearing jersey numbers either in the single digits or in the teens. But when you watch the Ohio State Buckeyes play this fall, there’s a chance that the team’s starting quarterback is wearing a very unique number instead: 33.
Devin Brown, who hopes to earn Ohio State’s starting quarterback spot this offseason, wore No. 15 throughout his first season with the Buckeyes last year. But this season, he has been granted permission to switch to No. 33 which he calls “the original quarterback number” after legendary Sammy Baugh wore it and became the first quarterback ever inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“The reason behind it was Sammy Baugh,” Brown said in a video shared by Ohio State beat writer Dan Hope of Eleven Warriors. “He was the first quarterback inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1963 with the Washington Football Team, so he’s a legend. That’s the original quarterback number, in my opinion. I want to rock the original quarterback number.”
Brown said that the number choice is important to him and his family.
“My Dad has always talked about it,” Brown said. “I put it on when I was 7 years old and had never taken it off until high school.”
It’s certainly a unique choice, but he’s doing it for quite a cool reason.
[Dan Hope]
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