Raiders’ Ashton Jeanty spent a small fortune to buy jersey number from All-Pro teammate in Las Vegas

During his record-setting career at Boise State, Ashton Jeanty wore No. 2, and now that he’s in the NFL, he’ll also be wearing that number, but only because he decided to write a massive check to make that happen.  

After the Raiders made Jeanty the sixth overall pick in the NFL Draft, the running back knew that he wanted to wear No. 2 in Las Vegas. The only problem with that plan was that the number was already being worn by Daniel Carlson. When Jeanty went in to pick out his number, Raiders’ equipment manager Bob Romanski informed him of the bad news. 

“I talked to the head equipment guy and he said, ‘Hey, you’re going to have to talk to [Carlson] about it,” Jeanty told Kay Adams during a recent interview. 

For the most part, a rookie won’t go after a number that’s already being worn by a veteran, but Jeanty was desperate to keep wearing No. 2. 

“I’ve worn it the majority of my career,” Jeanty said. “It’s the day greatness was born, the day I was born: December 2. It’s a family number. All my family members who played sports, they wore No. 2.”

With Jeanty dead set on getting two, Romanski gave him Carlson’s cell number so he could try to hash something out with the 2022 All-Pro kicker. 

“I called him and I’m like, ‘I’m trying to get that No. 2. I’m willing to negotiate whatever you’re thinking,'” Jeanty said. “I gave him what I was thinking first, then he came back and I’m like, ‘I gotta do it. I got to drop that little bag for No. 2.”

In the end, Jeanty did get the number, but he had to pay a massive price. So how much did he pay? 

“I can’t put that out.”

Come on, Ashton. You have to give us SOMETHING. You can’t leave us guessing. 

“You could buy a nice Mercedez GLE,” Jeanty said when Adams pressed him about how much he paid. 

Now we’re getting somewhere. According to Kelley Blue Book, the price of a Mercedez GLE runs anywhere from $63,000 to about $95,000, so it seems safe to say that Jeanty spent somewhere between $60,000 and $100,000 to buy No. 2, which he recently got to model at the NFLPA’s annual rookie premiere. 

Jeanty just signed four-year rookie deal worth $35.9 million that includes a $22.75 million signing bonus, so whatever the cost was, he had no problem paying it. 

“He saw that signing bonus,” Jeanty said of Carlson. “He was cool about it.”

Jeanty also added that some of the money would be going to charity, so Carlson won’t be keeping it all. 

Jeanty’s purchase is arguably one of the biggest of all-time, but it’s definitely not the biggest. Here are a few more interesting stories about players who purchased a jersey number. 

1. Gerald McCoy pays $250,000 to wear No. 93 with the Panthers. After spending the first nine seasons of his career wearing No. 93 in Tampa Bay, McCoy wanted to keep the number after signing with the Panthers in 2019. At the time, Carolina’s Kyle Love had the number, so McCoy made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: He gave him $250,000 for the number. 

No sane person would turn down that kind of money so of course, Love ended up taking it. McCoy only lasted one season with the Panthers, so he paid $250,000 to wear No. 93 for 16 games. 

2. Stefon Diggs spend $100,000 to buy No. 1. After being traded from the Bills to the Texans in April 2024, Diggs instantly knew that number he wanted in Houston: One. However Diggs ran into a small issue and that was the fact that the number was already being worn by Jimmie Ward. Diggs wanted the number so badly that he decided to cough up $100,000 to get it. However, Diggs only lasted one season in Houston before moving on to New England. One is once again available and Ward could theoretically switch back to it, and if he does that, he’ll get to pocket $100,000 for giving up the number for just one year. 

3. Clinton Portis almost gets taken to court. After signing with Washington in 2004, Portis wanted No. 26, so he offered Ifeanyi Ohalete $40,000 for the number. Ohalete accepted the deal — mainly because no one in the world would turn it down — and Portis promptly paid Ohalete $20,000 up front. The two players agreed the rest of the money would be paid by Christmas. A funny thing happened though: Ohalete got cut before that. With Ohalete no longer on the team, Portis didn’t believe he was under any obligation to pay him. However, Ohalete had one thing going in his favor: A written contract with the terms of the deal. The two sides were about to go to court, but the day before the case was set to start, Portis decided to settle and paid Ohalete $18,000.

4. Deion Sanders buys a car for a teammate. Alundis Brice only lasted two seasons in the NFL, but that was long enough to get a free BMW from Deion Sanders. In 1995, Brice was wearing No. 21 when Sanders signed with the Cowboys. Sanders wanted No. 21 and he also had a lot of money, so he did what anyone in his situation would do: He bought Brice a car. According to the book Boys will be Boys by Jeff Pearlman, Sanders randomly ran into Brice at a car dealership, where he saw his new teammate shopping for a sports car. Sanders then decided to surprise the rookie with a BMW and as most people know, it’s kind of hard to turn down a number request after someone surprises you with a BMW, so Brice gave Sanders No. 21.

Jeanty might not have topped the $250,000 that McCoy paid, but there’s a good chance that the Raiders running back just spent more money than any rookie ever to buy a number.