Moritz Seider reveals the hidden meaning behind his #53.

Choosing a number as a professional athlete can be a huge deal, especially when you reach the upper echelons of your sport of choice. For this reason players often have a great story behind why they selected a specific number or a reason why that number is of special importance to them personally. Sometimes though none of those things apply and at the end of the day it really is nothing but a number on the back of a jersey.

That appears to be the case when it comes to Detroit Red Wings rookie sensation Moritz Seider,  or at the very least that is what he would like you to believe. Over the weekend Seider revealed the reason he had chosen the number he now wears in the National Hockey League, the number 53, and the response he gave is one that I am willing to bet not a single Red Wings fan would have predicted correctly.

In what seems like an extremely random occurrence, Seider revealed that he had chosen the number based on the fact that he had watched the Herbie The Love Bug movie just one day prior to being asked what number he wanted to wear. Herbie The Love Bug is an anthropomorphic Volkswagen Beetle that stars in a long series of Disney movies, one that prominently features the number 53 on the front of the car. 

Strangely enough Herbie's own number 53 has an origin story that crosses over into the world of sport. The number was selected by Bill Walsh, a producer on the original movie, due to his love of baseball and more specifically for Don Drysdale who at the time wore number 53 for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Seider was not likely watching the 1968 original however, with the movie now having been remade several times. The movie was re-released in 1997 and then again in 2005, both of which I suspect are more likely to have served as the inspiration for the 20 year old defenseman's choice of number.

Again, not what anyone would have predicted.