Leinart already making history in Houston

It's been less than 24 hours since the Texans announced the signing of Matt Leinart and the new backup quarterback is wasting no time making his mark in the Texans record books.

Nick Scurfield of houstontexans.com (@NickScurfield on Twitter) reported earlier today that Leinart will wear #9, becoming the first Texans player to officially wear that number.

I guess Leinart didn't get enough in his one-year deal to buy #7 off Dan Orlovsky. Leinart wore #7 in Arizona.

'Officially wearing' a number means it was assigned to a player on the 53 man roster for at least one game during the regular season - which doesn't include numbers worn by practice squad players or those worn during preseason and training camp when rosters are inflated. 

By definition it also excludes players that were placed on IR during preseason when rosters were inflated (like Trindon Holliday who wore #16 in preseason).  I'm guessing if Holliday had made the team he would have grabbed #82 which is far cooler than #16.

In other words, if the player is listed in the Texans Media Guide all-time numerical roster, it's considered official.

Let's see ... Leinart wore #11 at USC, #7 at Arizona, and now #9 at Houston.  If I was one of those fortune tellers at the state fair, I'm sure I could conjure up some meaning in that, like he's odd but seeking middle ground in his life.

But I'm not a fortune teller so you're stuck with worthless trivia bits like what numbers have never been 'officially' worn by a Texans player.

Care to guess?  We're down to four.

They are (drum roll please): 6, 16, 39, and 49.

Interestingly, #46 hadn't officially been worn by a Texans player before this season until long snapper Jonathan Weeks was assigned that one earlier this year. 

Weeks probably just decided to keep the number he was originally assigned, like former Texans defensive tackle DelJuan Robinson who kept his unconventional #66 the past few years as a semi-statement of the hard work it took him to make the roster - and his 'temp' status.

Robinson was cut by the Texans last Saturday.

In other trivia, did you know that Chester Pitts is the only Texan to ever wear #69?  Makes sense since he was an original Texan and was released prior to this season.

Here's another one for you.

Who's the only other Texans player besides Andre Johnson to 'officially' wear #80?  If you can answer that without looking, you have my total respect - one trivia geek to another.

Here's a hint.  Since Andre was drafted in 2003, this was a player on the team during (only) the inaugural season of 2002.

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