FSU Football: Tim Jernigan Isn’t Worried About Warren Sapp

Former FSU football standout defensive tackle Tim Jernigan had to learn the hard way when paying homage to a former Cane.

A week or so ago we talked questioned why in the world Tim Jernigan would want to honor former Cane Warren Sapp by wearing his number this upcoming season.

Of course Sapp retorted that he didn’t want Jernigan to wear the No. 99 that he wore throughout his Hall of Fame career.

There wasn’t a concrete reason as to why Sapp felt the way he did when we wrote about this initially. However, Sapp spoke with PewterReport.com about the situation:

"“It was just more peculiar. I was introduced to him while he was at Florida State by a mutual friend of both of ours,” Sapp said. “I don’t want to call that person out, but he is a great friend of mine. So I reached out to the kid (Jernigan) and said, ‘Well here is my (phone) number,’ and then he calls me and reciprocates (exchanging numbers). I told him before he left for the draft, ‘Whatever you need, if you want to work out, do a little bag drills whatever you want, just let me know when you come to South Florida or I’ll come to Tampa or wherever you want to meet me at.’“So the draft happened and he had one of those things happen at the draft like I did, where you go a little lower than where you expect to have went. So after that went down I placed a text message and a call to him and said, ‘Listen son, now your career takes off. It’s not where you are drafted, it is what you do after you are drafted that make a career. You can’t have a career until you start one. The way to start one is, go to work. So I just tried to give him some encouragement since I know what that is like to be sitting there and having the world say things about you that makes you almost question yourself. I wanted to give him some reinforcement and say, ‘Hey there were 11 guys picked before me and not one of them can stand and say they have anything on me.’”"

Huh? What is Sapp talking about? Jernigan didn’t slide the way he did down the draft boards. He went exactly as projected (a top 50 pick) at No. 48 overall to the Baltimore Ravens.

"“That was the last conversation I had with the young man (in 2014). So for someone to say, ‘Hey, I want to pay tribute to someone, and I have their phone number,’ I would think you might want to try and call that person and say, ‘Hey dawg, I was thinking something…’ You know what I am saying?”"

So nobody else has worn the No. 99 in the NFL ever Warren? It’s your number? Luckily, Jernigan has taken the high road when it comes to Sapp making something out of nothing.

"“I’m going to be the bigger person,” Jernigan told ESPN. “He says what he wants to. He can feel what he wants to. At the end of the day, it’s all good. All I’m worried about is winning football games here in Baltimore.”“Every now and then, you come across those type of people in life,” Jernigan said. “I just can’t worry about that. I’m not worried about that guy. I’m not changing my number. And if you don’t want it to be about him, it doesn’t have to. At the end of the day, it’s just a number.”"

As we shared in the initial story about the situation. It’s not like Jernigan’s first two seasons in the NFL have been terrible. His numbers are VERY comparable to those of Sapp through two years.

must read: Ranking The Best FSU Teams Under Jimbo Fisher

Here’s to Jernigan being the bigger man and hoping he has a monster third year in the NFL representing FSU football.