Bush to wear No. 25 this seasonBy Darren Rovell
ESPN.com


Reggie Bush will get to wear No. 5 after all. There will just be a 2 before it.


Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Reggie Bush wore No. 5 during the Saints minicamp. He'll wear 25 during the regular season.

Bush's marketing agent Mike Ornstein told ESPN.com on Thursday that his client will wear No. 25 next season for the New Orleans Saints.


Bush will get the number from Saints running back Fred McAfee. Ornstein said that instead of money changing hands, Bush will give half of the money he had earmarked for charity to McAfee to use for the charity of his choice. Bush pledged to donate 25 percent of the royalties he receives from his jersey sales to Hurricane Katrina-related causes.


"We all went and dug into our pockets and the city is as devastated today as the day it happened," Ornstein said. "And now, everyone has gone on to the next disaster."


In order to get No. 5, the number he wore in high school and in college, the NFL Competition Committee would have had to change the numbering rules. Running backs can only wear Nos. 20-49, and earlier this week, the committee decided not to change the rules.


"Hopefully they will change the rules next year so that Reggie can go back to wearing his old number," Ornstein said.


Not having a number since being picked second in the NFL Draft might have hurt sales of Bush jerseys. Bush was first in pre-orders, according to Reebok vice president Eddie White, but he is now in second place behind Vince Young, who is wearing his college number 10, which he has had since draft day.

"It was a bunch of baloney that not having the No. 5 would hurt his sales," White said. "He could have worn any number, as long as we could have sold it that Sunday, like we did for Vince Young and A.J. Hawk and Matt Leinart. But because he didn't have anything, he's behind Vince."