NFL should allow Bush to wear his favorite number

	There are legitimate reasons Reggie Bush should be allowed to wear a number 5 jersey in the NFL. Heinz Kluetmeier/SI (Image altered by SI Imaging)
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I know this isn't a typical lead for Monday Morning Quarterback, but I find it absurd that the NFL Competition Committee, which will debate the issue this week, might not allow Reggie Bush to wear number 5 for the Saints. Here are five reasons why I think they should let him.

1. It would not be the end of Western civilization. Running backs, according to the league, are not allowed to wear single-digit numbers, and I'm sure the NFL's concern about Bush's request has something to do with setting a bad precedent for other players to change to nontraditional numbers. (Oh, you mean like Keyshawn Johnson, a wide receiver, wearing the decidedly non-wide-receiver number 19?) The Saints currently don't have a number in the 20s or 30s available for Bush; they'd have to get a current player to switch jersey numbers. I hear it will likely be Fred McAfee, the 15-year veteran back who now wears number 25. Number changes happen all the time, but in this case, why force it? And this would not be precedent-setting. The NFL saw to that when it gave Johnson, the top pick in 1996, permission to wear 19.

2. Everyone knows Bush as Number 5. After leaving New Orleans following the draft two weekends ago, I heard that the league's Competition Committee would listen to an appeal from Bush and the Saints and then make its decision some time this week. What the committee was told by Mike Ornstein, Bush's marketing maven, is that all of Southern California knows Bush as Number 5, which he has worn since he was a high school star, and that California is a lucrative merchandising market for the NFL. More people in that area will buy a Saints jerseys with the number 5 on it than would buy a Saints jerseys with a 25.

"He's synonymous with 5,'' said Ornstein, who sent this week's Sports Illustrated, which features Bush in a computer-generated Saints number 5 uniform, to each member of the Competition Committee and to several league officials, urging them to allow Bush to wear 5. And he told them how wild New Orleans was over Bush during draft weekend. I can attest to that. Now, Saints fans will be just as wild about him if he wears another number. That's for sure. But is there any good reason to make him do so? That Saints want him to wear 5, too. They helped with his appeal to the league.

3. Paul Hornung wore 5. You might remember him. Played at Notre Dame. Played for Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers. Was elected to the Hall of Fame. When he took the field wearing number 5, the earth did not spin off its axis.

4. Merchandising, people. Last year, the sales of Randy Moss and Terrell Owens jerseys earned those players more than $1 million each. Here's how the merchandising works: Say a Reebok replica jersey is sold in the store or online for $150. The NFLPA gets 7.5 percent of the proceeds of the jersey. That's $11.25. Of that $11.25, $9 is turned over to the player. There is no doubt in my mind that the hottest jersey in the league in the preseason would be Bush's number 5 Saints jersey ... much hotter than if Bush were given, say, 25. That leads us to something the NFL will definitely understand....