The recent fight between Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels and LSU over the re-issuance of his number started with a demand that the school stop using his name, image, and likeness. It reportedly included a request that the school return a statue designed in the likeness of Ed Smith.
Via Matt Moscana of LouisianaSports.net, Daniels’s representatives have asked LSU to return its copy of the Heisman Trophy that Daniels won while playing for the Tigers in 2023.
LSU, per the report, does not intend to do so.
If the report is accurate, it shows how ugly and petty this feud has become. And even though the Daniels camp has (in the opinion of many if not most if not virtually everyone) misplayed their hand, the entire issue traces to conflicting promises made by the program under the auspices of former coach Brian Kelly.
LSU promised Daniels it wouldn’t use his number again. LSU promised cornerback DJ Pickett that he would wear No. 5 if he committed to the school. Then, Kelly simply didn’t issue the number to Pickett, breaking the program’s promise to Pickett.
After Kelly was fired, new coach Lane Kiffin decided to honor the past promise made to Pickett — and to break the promise made to Daniels. Even if giving Pickett the number was a specific term of Pickett’s decision to stay at LSU, giving him what he wanted meant breaking the promise to Daniels.
Which is why football teams shouldn’t retire numbers. College programs especially shouldn’t do it. They want the best players they can get. If/when a given player insists on a retired number, the school has to choose between honoring the past and prioritizing the future. (And, yes, if Pickett had insisted on wearing No. 9, Joe Burrow is the player to whom the past promise would have been disregarded.)
Still, it all started with Kelly. Whether he specifically made or authorized the initial promise to Daniels and/or the contradictory promise to Pickett, Kelly and/or his staff made a promise to Daniels and a subsequent, conflicting promise to Pickett. Last year, the promise to Pickett wasn’t honored. This year, the promise to Daniels has been broken.
The only good news for the school is that Daniels’s overreaction has made him the primary target of public ridicule and scorn. But this entire mess traces directly to Brian Kelly and his decision to do authorize, or to allow, any means necessary to get Pickett to play for LSU.
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