Both Athletes Named Jordan Hicks Now Play For The Cardinals
Jordan Hicks, the NFL linebacker who had played for his entire career with the Philadelphia Eagles, signed a free agent contract with the Arizona Cardinals Tuesday, for four years and $36 million, per Arizona Sports. The contract has $20 million in guaranteed money.
He is not to be confused with the other Jordan Hicks, the baseball relief pitcher, who plays for baseball’s version of the Cardinals, the ones in St. Louis. And not only that, but the baseball Hicks also got a new contract, for around baseball’s minimum salary, per Fansided.
The baseball Jordan Hicks is only 22, while the football one is 26. Baseball Hicks is from Houston, while the football Hicks was born in Colorado, played his high school ball in Ohio, and went to college at the University of Texas. Hicks the pitcher is listed at 6’2?, while Hicks the linebacker is an inch shorter at 6’1?, although the football player, at 236, outweighs his baseball counterpart by more than 50 pounds.
The baseball Hicks, who made the Cardinals’ roster as a nonroster invitee in 2018, threw the fastest pitch in Major League Baseball last season, at over 105 miles per hour, per Statcast,and tied for the fastest pitch in history, with one thrown earlier by reliever Aroldis Chapman. Hicks actually broke 100 miles per hour in every pitch of an at-bat by the Phillies’ Odubel Herrera last May 20.
Hicks the pitcher will earn $575,000 in salary in 2019, according to Sportrac, as he lacks enough service time to be eligible for salary arbitration, which gives his team the ability to extend his contract at whatever level they wish as long as it is above the minimum. Hicks, in his rookie season with the Cardinals in 2018, pitched 77 and two-thirds innings in 73 games, notching a win/loss record of 3-4, six saves, and a 3.59 earned run average, per Baseball Reference.
Hicks, the linebacker, was drafted by the Eagles out of Texas in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He’s been considered a solid player throughout his NFL career, but has had trouble staying healthy. He earned a Super Bowl ring with Philadelphia in the 2017 season, although he suffered a season-ending injury in October of that year and did not play in Super Bowl LII.
This is Jordan Hicks. He plays for the Cardinals. pic.twitter.com/Rau5yJgZ1B
— Benthic Baseball (@BenthicBaseball) March 12, 2019
In the 1970s and ’80s, there were actually two different teams in St. Louis called the St. Louis Cardinals, playing baseball and football. The football Cardinals, however, moved to Phoenix in the late 1980s, and were later rebranded as the Arizona Cardinals.
