The most entertaining business deal in Dallas Cowboys history was struck by Von Miller and Hunter Luepke
It sounds like Von Miller is getting the jersey number he wanted since Day 1 on the Dallas Cowboys. But the whole thing required a savvy business deal.
This might go down as one of the most entertaining Dallas Cowboys business deals of all time. And it happened between two players: Future Hall of Famer Von Miller and former undrafted fullback Hunter Luepke.
It all started because Luepke had something Miller wanted: the No. 40 jersey.
In his introductory press conference, Miller expressed a desire to wear Luepke’s No. 40, quickly ruling out No. 58 (which he wore with the Denver Broncos) and No. 94 (which he claimed to belong to DeMarcus Ware’s).
At the time, Miller—who owns Greener Pastures Chicken, pasture-raised poultry company—joked that he might have to offer Luepke “chicken for life.” Unfortunately for him, the Cowboys fullback used his leverage successfully. At least it seems he did.
Luepke to get business equity for No. 40 (allegedly)
So about that parenthesis: Miller said he “was able to get number 40 from Hunter Luepke,” but later clarified he was 90% sure his pitch to the Cowboys fullback would work. In that case, nothing is final.
This is how things went down, according to Miller in his podcast, Free Range:
“(Luepke has been 40 for a long time. It ain’t something that I just can come in and boss hog like. And when I talked to him about it, right when I saw him with the Dallas Cowboys, I hit him on Instagram and he was like, ‘you know, ‘we can figure something out.’ And I came up with the idea, I give him chicken for life.
“Of course, being the great negotiator he is, he was like, ‘how about equity in Green Pastures Chicken?’ I was like, ‘it’s something that we can probably work out.’ He wanted 2% equity, which would be up in the multiple hundreds and thousands of dollars, but a piece of that I was able to work it out. I don’t want to disclose what I was able to do, but we were able to work it out, and I’m like 90% sure that I’ll be number 40.”
If Luepke genuinely gets equity out of this deal, honestly, tip of the hat to him. Miller is an NFL legend but he had zero reason to give up the number. Getting something as good as business equity in return is neat and a perfect play of his leverage.
It’s certainly an upgrade over one of Miller’s other offers:
“We talked about doing like the anesthesia thing where he get tattooed, get his whole body tatted, which would cost around $40 to $50,000,” miller revealed. “I was going to do that for him. That sounded like a great gift to me.”
To be honest with you, at first I thought Miller was just joking around. But this sounds like a deal that’s actually close to getting done. By Miller’s account, it sounds like they have the foundations of an agreement.
“A small piece, but he’s a part of the team, and him being a partner of Green Pastures Chicken, playing for the Dallas Cowboys, wearing the hat, I think it was valuable on my end and valuable on his end as well,” Miller added. “So we’re able to work something out, and I think I’m 90% sure we’ll be able to get that done.”
So if we’re taking Miller’s word for it, he’ll get No. 40 in the end.
