First-round pick Kayvon Thibodeaux will be wearing No. 5 with the New York Giants, the same number he wore as a unanimous All-American before being the fifth overall selection out of the University of Oregon last month.
It just cost him $50,000 to get it from veteran kicker Graham Gano.
The positive for Thibodeaux is that the money will be going to charity. The two agreed on donating it to Puppies Behind Bars, which provides service dogs to wounded war veterans and first responders in addition to explosive-detection canines for law enforcement. Gano comes from a military family; his dad served in the U.S. Navy for 30 years.
“I feel like it was where the money that Kayvon was donating would be able to make the largest impact and help the most people throughout him giving that money,” Gano told the Giants’ website. “The whole idea behind the number five being special to myself and being special to Kayvon was being able to help five people get the five dogs and be able to make an impact in five people’s lives for the better.
.@GrahamGano shares charity donation @kayvont posted for No. 5
📰: https://t.co/cqtfJUeIqy pic.twitter.com/2j0j3GPjqG
— New York Giants (@Giants) May 10, 2022
“That was the whole goal behind that. I’m really excited about it.”
Thibodeaux joked at his introductory news conference that it would take a lot of zeros to get the number from Gano. After all, former Giants safety Jabrill Peppers was unable to pry away the No. 5 from Gano, who says he wears that number because he has five kids (Bryson, Ryder, Kayden, Riley and Brynlee), who range from 10 to 2 years old.
“It’s funny, you guys just know, this is real now, we’re talking real numbers,” Thibodeaux said with a laugh. “When you tell somebody 250, I don’t know what 250 means. You forget all the zeros behind it. Things are a lot different now.
“But yeah, he’s a great guy and we obviously are going to build a relationship, and I’m going to be able to really get into it and we’re going to talk about it.”
It’s something they apparently talked about shortly after the draft.
By the way, @kayvont and I knew the number change was going down for about a week before we said anything. Loved messing with all of y’all every step of the way. 😁
— Graham Gano (@GrahamGano) May 10, 2022
Gano, 35, is going back to wearing the No. 9 he wore with the Carolina Panthers. His wife, Brittany, also wore the number as a star softball player at Florida State.
