Lamar Jackson will change his jersey number if he leads the Ravens to a Super Bowl victory

If you’re a proud owner of a Lamar Jackson No. 8 Baltimore Ravens jersey like me, it could soon become a collector’s item. On a recent appearance on ‘The Lounge’ podcast, the former league MVP said that he would switch his jersey number if the Ravens win the Super Bowl with him at the helm.

No. 1 holds significant sentimental value to Jackson because it was the number he wore when he started playing football up until he arrived on campus at the University of Louisville as a three-star recruit.

“That was my first number ever,” said Jackson. “My dad told me to get No. 1 because that’s the best, you’re the best, and that always stuck with me. I got No. 8 when I went to college and my mom told me that eight stands for new beginnings so it’s like dang this is a new beginning so I kept it.”

At just 24 years old, Jackson has already accomplished so much while sporting the No. 8 at both the collegiate and professional level. He won the Heisman Trophy as a true sophomore in 2016 at 19-years old and in his second year in the league, he became just the second player in NFL history to be voted league MVP unanimously. Both award-winning seasons were historic campaigns that shattered records and he did it in dynamic fashion with an electrifying dual-threat playing style.

While Jackson admitted that his favorite basketball player of all time is LeBron James, he wants to do with the Ravens what the late great Kobe Bryant did with the Los Angeles Lakers during his two decades as the face of the storied NBA franchise. He wants to lead the team to multiple championship titles and build up such an outstanding legacy that the organization he played his entire career for retires both of the numbers he donned during what he hopes is a Hall of Fame career.

“I wanna retire No. 8 and No. 1,” said Jackson. “That’s what I wanna do with the Ravens. I wanna win a Super Bowl with No. 8 on, do as much as I can with No. 8 on then come back and do the same with No. 1 on.”

If Jackson does make the official switch, there’s no guarantee that the No. 8 won’t be picked up by another prominent Ravens player on either side of the ball. One such player is second-year linebacker Patrick Queen who was the team’s first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

The uber-athletic tackling machine wore No. 8 in college at LSU where he helped propel the Tigers to a national title in 2019. When the league announced the skill position players on offense and defense could wear single-digit numbers, Queen switched his number to six for sentimental reasons of his own after jokingly asking Jackson how much it would cost for him to give up his current number. However, he didn’t rule out the possibility of yet another switch at later date if the number does become available.