Desmond Howard thinks it's time to retire his number
Pretty arrogant self-promotion by Howard, but then I've come to expect the worst when ex-athletes speak.
“I believe it’s time, without a shadow of a doubt,” the former wide receiver and kick returner said. “It’s just a huge honor. For what I do, traveling around (as an ESPN analyst), I see a lot of players at other schools with jerseys retired who have not accomplished what Woodson and I have. Oklahoma even has wooden statues. Florida has statues.”
He noted his accomplishments are greater than those of some players with statues and retired jerseys, yet “who have done less” than him.
I can't fathom ever thinking enough of myself to think that the University of Michigan should retire a number I used to wear.
EDIT: But I do think that he deserves it.
....if I can go back to my high school and ask them to retire the "7" I wore when I played baseball with the proviso that they retire the mirror image of the number. That way, no one can wear a backwards "7" moving forward.
Desmond Howard was a great reciever and returner in college, great returner and below average reciever in the pro's. There has been alot of great athletes at the U of M, you don't see them asking for their number to be retired. What a big ego!!!!! I don't think he should have it retired. Sorry Desmond.
And there are lots of guys who have won the Heisman Trophy, too.
What he did in the pros is completely irrelevant. This is college football. The only plausible objections to retiring Desmond's number are 1) if he hasn't graduated (not sure if he did or not) and 2) concern about running out of numbers. On merit, there is absolutely no argument against it.
I think Woodson should definitely have hs number retired or have a statue built. Really, the man has accomplished alot for the university. Won conference championships and a national championship, heisman, and other post season awards. Not just that he donated a big $$$$$$ to the childrens hospital. I think they should do both. Build a statue of knocking down David Boston from OSU in the game where he ran back the punt return. That would be awesome.
Well, to be fair, he was asked about it. It's not like he randomly said "I'm amazing so they should retire my jersey." Everything he said was true.. I agree that we should retire his jersey, but I'm not sure it's gonna happen.
And I know this will never happen at the Big House, but it'd be pretty badass to have a Desmond statue with the Heisman pose, Woodson statue with the rose in his mouth, and a nice Old 98 statue..
Are there any good athlete statues? There must be one or more, if only to prove the rule that most of them are awful.
The Jordan statue at the United Center is a nice concept; maybe it is one of the few good ones. (I'm mostly unimpressed; it looks kind of cheesy to me.)
There are the statues at Comerica Park; the place looks like the Meijer Sculpture Garden -- inside of a Meijers store. I might view them less harshly if I didn't have such an indifferent attitude toward that entire complex.
Most of these things have zero artistic value. Or less than zero. They are nothing but fan-memorabilia in bronze. The statue of Nick Saban alone ought to provoke a 100-year worldwide ban on all sports statues.
Michigan Stadium has a sculpture, and one is perfectly adequate.
Is there any purer form of vanity in modern sports then the jersey number retirement? I know that David Brandon is working on a "policy." It will be interesting to see how he handles it. I fully admit to liking the odd historical notion of retiring Harmon's ol' 98, and the quirk of the Wisterts' number 11. But in all honesty, I am not at all thrilled about the idea of taking more numbers out of circulation on a big squad where so many guys are doubled up on numbers.
I take it you've never been inside Joe Louis Arena.
The Gordie Howe sculpture?
See, this is where I get into trouble on MGoBlog...
Can we just stipulate that Gordie Howe is Mr. Hockey and the greatest human being ever to draw a breath of air? Okay. Ditto Ty Cobb, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg and Al Kaline.
And yet all of those statues, probably beloved by Detroit-area pro sports fans, are loved because of their fandom and worship of those guys.
The sculptor Omri Amran (sp?) is like the Leroy Neiman of sculpture. Art, that is, for guys who like baseball and hockey.
I hope you accidently trip into Ty Cobb's upturned spikes (just kidding...kind of.) I agree, as statues they may not be the most artistic recreations, but im pretty content when i walk into JLA and gordie is welcoming me. Im not critiquing the materails...
Rocky Balboa.
This is an example of perhaps the wrong person making the right case.
LOL I assume they have just been waiting for Desmond to give the go ahead. It's about time, Desmond. WTF have you been waiting for?
It would be nice to honor our former greats in some way. For a program who loves it's tradition, we kind of miss the boat on this aspect.
11, 47, 48, 87, 98 are all retired. We're just slow about retiring them.
Props to whoever can put a name (or names) to the numbers without Googling.
Ha, I bet most of MGoBlog can do that.
Wisterts, Oosterbaan, Ford, Kramer, Harmon..
What doesn't help Desmond is that they all achieved more than Desmond did. Among those five you have a former president, a bunch of multi-sport all americans, and a bunch of national championship winners.
The Wisterts never won a Heisman, and only by the odd circumstances of the youngest Wistert serving in the military and then playing college football in his mid-20's, was there a third Wistert at Michigan.
And Ron Kramer's jersey retirement has never made sense to me. Actually, it sort of did. Ronnie did a lot of drinking, and played a lot of golf, with the guys who could make a decision about retiring a jersey number. And he happened to play for Vince Lombardi in the NFL.
I'm kind of leery about retiring too many numbers. Imagine years from now when Hoke has won multiple championships, and all the legendary players that will have passed through.
We already have to double up, eventually we're going to run out! I do, however, think that both Woodson and Howard deserve the honor.
has this listed in "100 things". I put them to memory.
Could be a great way of spicing up the four corners...
"Yeah, meet me at Desmond after the first quarter, I'll buy you a cider..."
Give me statues, give me signs, give me flags -- I don't care what U-M does. Anything is better than what they do now, which is NOTHING.
a statue of desmond striking the heisman could be pretty BA if done well. im in favor
How about a statue of C-Wood's interception (a nice slap in the face to sparty everytime they show up), or a statue of him with the Rose in his mouth?
i really like that idea. woodson, desmond, harmon and... ? leave it blank until denard wins his heisman?? (and even then, wait ~10 years)
Bo. Yost. Crisler. (maybe Lloyd?)
support one of Lloyd too I guess. Winning a NC is never easy.
Harmon's number is retired.
He's talking about getting statues
Not sure how I feel about retiring numbers even of those that won the Heisman. I have no problem of this being recognized in the Circle Of Champions but inside Michigan Stadium itself to me is hallowed ground. Not even Yost, Crisler or Schembechler are recognized in Stadium.
I'd also like a better circle of champions while we're at it. That's more of "odd concrete circle surrounded by trash cans" than any kind of real memorial.
I agree. Nothing inside the stadium. That holy ground represents all of Michigan football, while not specificially representing anyone. The team, the team, the team.
I love the guy, been wearing his jersey to games since 1990 (washed it a couple times even), but I would have prefered Desmond had engaged the filter a bit before responding to that question.
Is a tribute to Yost. I've thought for awhile now that there should be a second one added for Bo.
The "1" at the end of Michigan Stadium's capacity is the seat reserved for Fritz Crisler.
of Howard doing the Heisman pose would be freaking badass!
Im 50/50 on Desmond. But I 100% agree that Woodson should have #2 retired. He accomplished everything you could ask for; Beat all rivals, win rose bowl, win championship, win Heisman. What else could he have done?
He could have graduated. Let's not forget that these are student-athletes.
wooden statues last in the harsh Oklahoma weather? If we put up statues in AA, we should choose better materials.
carved out of dilithium crystal?
I've read a lot of comments from people who want a Desmond Howard statue, well I'm sure there must be a few sculptors who read MGoBlog, maybe we can talk one of them into making the statue and donating it to the university.
Desmond's mouth has been roaring lately. Not sure what's gotten into him.
I echo the sentiments of others that say this is not cool. It's kind of like calling yourself a "maverick." It's a title others bestow on you.
I don't like the idea of having numbers retired just because I love wondering if the new kid in that number might live up to its legacy. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, but it's not like wearing that number is somehow tainting their legacy.
Instead of retiring numbers, they should and do use them for recruiting: come to Michigan and wear Charles Woodson's #2, etc. As with receivers and the #1, numbers like #2 should be used to entice recruits at corner.
Putting up statues is fine, but it is tasteless of Desmond to lobby for it himself.
I don't see Desmond as being a bastion of modesty (hence the pose in the first place) so I'm not surprised about the comment, and he deserves it anyway so what's the problem?
I just don't want to have too many numbers retired and then you get mix-ups like we had last year with two kids with the same number in on the same play.
Same here. I would even prefer we use all 99 numbers and just erect some statues or have some type of wall-of-fame at the Big House. I like seeing #2 still used. It reminds me of Woodson. Bring 'em all back and make it an honor to wear those special numbers.
It's completely lame and bush league for DH to endorse the idea himself. He should have simply said "It would of course be a great honor, but that's something for other people to discuss. Right now I'm more interested in how Brady Hoke's first year is going to go."
Desmond is more than a little full of himself. I think he might even have his head up his ass.
Almost to the point where I am opposed to it because DH said this.