After he was surprisingly released by the Los Angeles Rams, running back Todd Gurley took a couple of weeks before deciding to sign with the Atlanta Falcons, bringing him back to the state where he played college at the University of Georgia. According to ESPN, though, his homecoming also brought on the ire of Falcons legend Deion Sanders for the pettiest reason possible: the number 21.
Gurley announced shortly after signing with Atlanta that he would be rocking #21, which just so happened to be Deion Sanders’ number while he played in the NFL. According to Gurley, Prime Time was not happy that the running back didn’t ask for his blessing:
Prime was hatin’ on me. He told me don’t wear it. Cause it’s Prime. If I was Prime, I wouldn’t want nobody wearing my number either.
That’s perhaps a fair point, especially since the Falcons don’t retire numbers; if they did, Sanders’s would surely be put out of comission. The only problem here is that someone had been wearing #21 for the last seven years, with nary a peep from Sanders: Desmond Trufant had worn the number for the entirety of his career in Atlanta before being released this off-season.
Gurley, who had worn #30 with the Rams and #3 in college, gave no explanation for the choice, but given Trufant was able to wear it for so long, the new Falcon doesn’t really need an explanation beyond the fact that fellow running back Qadree Ollison already wears #30 in Atlanta. As for Prime Time, he’ll have to deal with the same sight he’s had to deal with for seven years: a current player on the Falcons wearing his number once again.
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