When Donnovan McNabb joined the Vikings, punter Chris Kluwe agreed to give up his No. 5 jersey, on a few conditions.
Kluwe is one of the NFL’s freest spirits, so it’s no surprise that a couple of those conditions were off the wall: One was that McNabb had to buy him an ice cream cone. Another was that McNabb had to mention Kluwe’s band, Tripping Icarus, at five press conferences.
The third and final condition was that McNabb would make a $5,000 donation to Kick For A Cure, an organization that supports people with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Kluwe is involved with Kick For a Cure, and he thought it would be a nice gesture for McNabb to show his support.
Unfortunately, that’s a gesture that McNabb hasn’t followed through on: Kluwe told Scout.com this week that McNabb didn’t make the donation. Today I checked in with Kluwe on Twitter to see if maybe the Scout.com article had motivated McNabb to contact him about the donation, but it didn’t.
“No, but I haven’t really had a chance to ask him. I was going to at the end of the season, but then he got released,” Kluwe wrote on Twitter.
For McNabb, who has made tens of millions of dollars in his NFL career, it shouldn’t be tough to come up with $5,000, and Kluwe shouldn’t need to remind him. It was something McNabb agreed to (Vikings.com caught the whole thing on video) and it’s something McNabb needs to do.
It’s also a reminder that these agreements between teammates to give up jersey numbers often go awry. Former Redskins defensive back Ifeanyi Ohalete ended up suing former teammate Clinton Portis for $20,000 over a failed agreement on the No. 26, and former Giants punter Jeff Feagles said Plaxico Burress never paid up after they reached an agreement over the No. 17. In the future, players shouldn’t give up jersey numbers until they get the payment in hand.