Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown is the latest player to take advantage of the NFL’s relaxed jersey number rule, switching from No. 15 to No. 5.
The rule allows players from more positions to wear lower and single-digit uniform numbers, similar to what college football players can do.
There’s just one thing about Brown’s switch to No. 5: The last Ravens player to wear the number was also the Super Bowl MVP of their last championship team — quarterback Joe Flacco.
Flacco was the Ravens’ first-round draft pick in 2008 and played with Baltimore for 12 seasons. In 2013, he led the team to a win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII. Flacco threw for 287 yards and three touchdowns in the game. With the emergence of Lamar Jackson, Flacco was traded to the Denver Broncos in 2019.
The Ravens have yet to retire a jersey number, but there are four — Ray Lewis’ No. 52, Jonathan Ogden’s No. 75, Ed Reed’s No. 20 and Terrell Suggs‘ No. 55 — that haven’t been worn since those players left the team. Given Flacco’s accomplishments, it seemed maybe his number would be off-limits, as well.
That doesn’t seem like the case.
Brown wore No. 5 during his record-setting career at Oklahoma.