The No. 13 has been in the news lately, with veteran receivers hoping to wear it with their new teams. For Odell Beckham Jr.’s return to New York, he got lucky. For Colts receiver Keenan Allen, the message was “better luck next time.”
Colts receiver Laquon Treadwell told reporters on Wednesday that he won’t be surrendering the number to Allen, who will instead wear No. 10.
“I told him, ‘I respect the game. I know what you did in the number,’” Treadwell said, via James Boyd of The Athletic. “Me and my family, we did a lot of praying about it as well. So, he was cool with me keeping the number.”
In 13 NFL seasons with the Chargers and Bears, Allen has always worn No. 13. His fourteenth season will mark the first time he’ll wear a different number.
Should that matter? No. But plenty of players develop a personal attachment to the device used to depersonalize them — the reduction of their identity to a one- or two-digit number. For many, that number then becomes a huge part of their identity.
It’s not entirely clear why Treadwell feels compelled to keep the number. He wore 11, 80, 82, 18, 17, and 7 from 2016 through 2024, before landing in 13 last year. In that number, Laquon appeared in 10 games with no catches on no targets.
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