Above: Kevon Seymour after his October news conference where he was officially announced as a U.S. Army All-American.
Muir standout defensive back Kevon Seymour took issue with a Rivals story that published Monday regarding players at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl registration annoyed about the jersey numbers they were assigned.
Among the players mentioned in the story was Seymour, who reportedly was annoyed he had No. 41 instead of his usual No. 1. According to the Rivals report, Seymour “willingly admits he’ll look at the rosters of potential colleges to see if No. 1 is available” and that if it’s not “the school’s chances of landing him diminish.”
When contacted by the Pasadena Star-News on Tuesday, Seymour took issue with the reporting.
“Everything he wrote was wrong,” Seymour said. “You think I’m going to choose a school off a number? Heck no I’m not. That’s ridiculous, and that guy who put that story about me is ridiculous too because all he’s trying to do is get the hype.”
Seymour explained what happened.
“Of course I wanted No. 1,” he said, “but all I was saying was why did they give me No. 41? Like it’s a linebacker’s number. If a linebacker is wearing No. 15 and stuff why couldn’t they give him No. 41 and give me No. 15. That linebacker didn’t even want that number. He told me that if we didn’t have our names on the back of our jerseys he would have switched with me.
“I’m definitely not going to pick a school off a number. That’s just dumb. If I was only going to a school that was gonig to give me No. 1 then why would I even be considering USC? (USC coach Lane) Kiffin doesn’t even give out No. 1 so if that was the case I wouldn’t even be considering USC. All I wanted to know was why they gave me No. 41. That was it.
“But it’s all said and done. Now I’m going to ball out with that number. Everything Rivals said was all fake.”
The story gained national attention after it was picked up on the popular sports site Deadspin, and it was the topic of discussion on Twitter Monday night.
Pete Thamel, a national college football and basketball reporter at the New York Times, wrote “this is just pathetic. Ridiculous diva tendencies rule the U.S. Army All American game”. Yahoo! Sports senior investigative reporter Charles Robinson wrote back at Thamel, saying “talk about misguided decision making” regarding Seymour’s supposed decision based on the availability of jersey No. 1.
Seymour said he was adament that he was wrongly portrayed in the story, adding that he was aware of the backlash created by the story.
Monrovia five-star recruit Ellis McCarthy also is a U.S. Army All-American, and for what it’s worth, he’s wearing jersey No. 18, the same number he’s worn the last two seasons at Monrovia.
The U.S. Army-All American Bowl will be televised live Saturday on NBC.
