NCAA Denies Steven Izzo’s Unique Jersey Request

Steven Izzo is many more things than just the son of a Michigan State demigod and Hall of Fame basketball coach.

He's a locker room glue guy, key to the continuation of Spartan basketball's time-honored tradition of work ethic and toughness. He's a human victory cigar, signaling doom for MSU's opponents when he checks in during the waning moments of a game to salt away another Spartan victory.

And, most recently, he would have been a college sports trailblazer. But the NCAA, as it is wont to do, has positioned itself firmly between Steven Izzo and history.

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According to The Mark Titus Show on Barstool Sports, Steven Izzo recently tried to make use of the NCAA's recently changed rules governing jersey numbers in college basketball. For years, double-digit jersey numbers starting with a 6, 7, 8, and 9 were not allowed, but the NCAA amended that rule and made all numbers between 0 and 99 eligible for official use on jerseys earlier this month.

Steven Izzo purportedly heard about this on Titus' show and immediately recognized the magnitude of the moment, that he had been divinely predestined to become the first-ever college basketball player to wear the most coveted jersey number of all time.

[Steven Izzo] said that he put in a formal request...to be No. 69 for the Michigan State Spartans next year. His request was denied.

To him I said, 'I thought this was America. What happened to freedom of speech? It's disgusting.' I told him you need to have your dad talk to [them].

He wanted it to be known he gave it a swing.

Leonardo Da Vinci. Nikola Tesla. Alan Turing. And now, Steven Izzo. All men who were too bold and brilliant for their time.