JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- By now you've heard of the letter that hockey player Jordan Leopold's 11-year-old daughter wrote to Minnesota coaches urging them to work a trade with Columbus to bring her father back to his hometown so he could play for the Wild. Though the letter was never sent to the team -- Leopold's wife posted it on social media and it quickly went viral -- the Wild did indeed make the trade and Wild GM Chuck Fletcher later admitted that he saw the letter on social media while working on the trade and said "there was a pressure to close the deal."
Since that appeared to work so well, ESPN decided to give it a try in regards to free-agent-t0-be defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. Three former NFL players now working as ESPN analysts were asked to write letters urging Suh to sign with their former teams. One of them was former Jaguars quarterback Mark Brunell.
His selling points were the Jaguars having the most cap space of any team, the lack of state income tax in Florida, and a young quarterback and defensive-minded coach. Here's his letter:
Dear Mr. Suh,
I hope this letter finds you well. My name is Mark Brunell and I was the QB for the Jaguars years ago. I am writing you to ask if you would be willing to join our football team. Our fans love and support our team and would love nothing more than for you to wear the Teal and Black. We have a good young quarterback and we have a defensive minded coach in Gus Bradley that you would enjoy playing for. Jacksonville is a franchise that is once again on the rise and your leadership and intensity is exactly what we need. By the way, we have a LOT of money to spend. And we are going to spend it! Not to mention Florida has no state income tax. Just sayin! I REALLY hope you will consider being a Jaguar.
Go Jaguars!
Former Indianapolis center Jeff Saturday and former Pittsburgh running back Jerome Bettis also wrote to Suh. Here is a video of each of them reading their letters.
We'll find out if the letter-writing campaign worked on Tuesday.