{"id":816881,"date":"2026-03-17T11:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/816881\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T11:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:14:14","slug":"matt-leinart-usc-asked-me-to-unretire-my-jersey-for-a-recruit-i-said-absolutely-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/816881\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Leinart: USC asked me to unretire my jersey for a recruit, I said absolutely not"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As college football becomes increasingly professional, programs aren\u2019t only offering money to players to get them to transfer, they\u2019re also offering jersey numbers. But not in the case of the No. 11 jersey at USC. That was retired in honor of Matt Leinart, and he says it\u2019s staying retired.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was at USC, I got my number retired,\u201d Leinart said on his <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gYXrDMnBrEY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Throwbacks Podcast<\/a>. \u201cYou win the Heisman Trophy, automatic retired number, which is pretty cool. So, our jerseys are hanging in the Coliseum on one side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leinart said USC has approached him about unretiring the number, when top recruits have wanted to wear No. 11 at USC. Leinart won\u2019t agree to it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been multiple times where people at USC have asked me if I would unretire my jersey for some five-star prospect,\u201d Leinart said. \u201cAnd do you want to know what I told those guys straight up? I said, \u2018Absolutely fucking not.\u2019 I am never going to unretire my jersey for some random dude who by the way now could wear No. 11 and transfer after a year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leinart knows that fellow USC Heisman-winning quarterback Carson Palmer allowed his No. 3 jersey to be worn by Jordan Addison, but Leinart said he wouldn\u2019t do that. Leinart did say he\u2019d make an exception if his son Cole Leinart, a freshman quarterback at SMU, or one of his two younger sons wanted to wear No. 11 at USC. But that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only person that will ever wear my USC No. 11 would be Cole, who\u2019s not there right now. He\u2019s at SMU. Or two of my boys if they end up going to USC and playing football. That is it,\u201d Leinart said.<\/p>\n<p>Asked what he\u2019d say if a USC player with a big NIL deal offered money for the No. 11 jersey, Leinart said it\u2019s not about money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbsolutely not. Would never do it,\u201d Leinart said. \u201cIt\u2019s not for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As college football becomes increasingly professional, programs aren\u2019t only offering money to players to get them to transfer,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7],"class_list":{"0":"post-816881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116244228690695656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}