Giants receiver Sterling Shepard is changing jersey numbers. He is going from No. 87, which he has worn five seasons in the NFL, to No. 3.
The No. 3 means a lot to Shepard: It’s the number he and his late father, Derrick Shepard, wore at the University of Oklahoma.
“It’s something that means a lot to me,” Shepard said, via the team website. “It’s been a number that I’ve been since I was a little kid, after my father passed. He wore No. 3 in college. That’s something that meant a lot to me, a lot to his teammates. I wanted to carry that on. When I came into the league, you couldn’t get single digits. Whenever the rule changed, I was happy to grab that.”
Derrick Shepard, also a wide receiver, lettered at Oklahoma from 1983-86. He played 36 NFL games with Washington, Dallas and New Orleans.