Von Miller has only just arrived in Dallas, and he’s already working the angles for the jersey he wants.
The Cowboys introduced the 37-year-old in California on Tuesday ahead of their joint practice with the New Orleans Saints, giving him a step closer to his first practice field appearance in a Dallas uniform. And while training camp numbers can be temporary for most players, Miller is not exactly a guy you leave to jersey roulette.
No. 94 is off the table. Miller said he won’t take that number out of respect for DeMarcus Ware. No. 40, though, is very much in play - if Miller can strike a deal with Hunter Luepke.
That negotiation is already underway.
"Hunter, we already started off on a great foot," Miller said."... I'm not gonna get caught up in a number, but I did make some offers to him already that I really feel like he can't come off of those. You know, I think a lifetime supply of chicken will do it."
And yes, Miller is serious enough about the chicken part to make it work. He is the co-founder of Greener Pastures Chicken, a Texas-based poultry company that says it is "helping redefine what healthy chicken should be," according to its official website. Miller also grew up raising chickens and majored in poultry science at Texas A&M, so the offer is a little less random than it sounds.
There’s a clean path here if the two sides want it. Luepke wore No. 44 at North Dakota State, and the Cowboys’ official website lists No. 40 as currently unclaimed. Still, it’s not hard to see why Miller would want to land the number, even if the jersey issue is a sideshow compared with everything else he’s bringing to Dallas.
Miller made it clear he’s here to win, and he downplayed the number drama as something he can live without if needed. But players with his resume usually end up getting the number they want, and there’s a simple fallback staring Luepke in the face: No. 44.
For now, it’s a funny little subplot to Miller’s arrival. The bigger takeaway from his introduction was plain enough: he’s determined to get No. 40, and he’s just as fired up about helping his childhood team win football games.
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