No Aaron Rodgers, Penn State isn’t retiring Olu Fashanu’s number this weekend

Over the last few years of his illustrious NFL career, Aaron Rodgers has been known to share some misinformation, some harmless, some less so. On Thursday Night Football after his New York Jets beat the Houston Texans 21-13 at Metlife Stadium, Rodgers told another lie about his new teammate and former Penn State Nittany Lion, Olu Fashanu. 

On the TNF postgame show, Rodgers said of his rookie offensive tackle, “Congrats to Olu, getting his number retired this weekend at Penn State. I’ve been out 20 years at Cal, no number retired. He’s been out four months, getting his number retired.”

While Fashanu had an excellent career at Penn State, becoming the No. 11 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, his No. 74 will be available to wear for the foreseeable future. Penn State is not retiring Fashanu’s number this weekend, though if Rodgers got at least part of the story right, he could be using his weekend off from the NFL to head to Happy Valley for Penn State’s top 5 showdown with Ohio State, a team Fashanu was never able to beat across his four years in Happy Valley. 

Regardless of how steady Fashanu was at left tackle, it’s unlikely that his number would ever be retired by the Nittany Lions. College football number retirements are rare because of the immense size of the roster, it’s already impossible to have a number for every player, forcing offensive and defensive players to double up and then change jerseys if they are to share the field on special teams. 

Penn State has only retired one number in the history of the program John Cappelletti’s No. 22 which was retired in 2013. The former Penn State running back is the only player in program history to win the Heisman Trophy, which he did back in 1973.