Sauce Gardner would like everyone to know he is 24 years old. Not 25. Not nearly 26. Twenty-four. And he has been saying so for long enough that the repetition alone has become a small source of exasperation.
The Indianapolis Colts cornerback raised the subject again last week as the team wrapped up its final offseason practice, pointing out to reporters who were discussing his veteran status that he is actually considerably younger than his reputation might suggest. The clarification was delivered with the tone of someone who has made this correction before and fully expects to make it again.
How the confusion started
At some point during Gardner’s rise to prominence as one of the NFL’s best cornerbacks, his birth year became misrecorded in widely used sports databases. Multiple prominent sports websites, reference pages, and statistical databases listed his birthday as August 31, 2000, making him a year older than he actually is. The error spread through aggregation and repetition until the incorrect date became the accepted version of the truth across much of the internet.
Gardner’s actual birth year is 2001. The Colts have listed it correctly in their team materials since acquiring him in a significant trade last year, and the NFL’s own official database reflects the 2001 date. Gardner said his driver’s license confirms it, and that all documentation he has personally signed throughout his career carries the 2001 birth year. His explanation for how the wrong date took hold was straightforward: at some point someone pulled the information from an unreliable source, and from there it replicated itself without being checked against official records.
What the correct age actually means
The distinction matters more than it might initially appear. Gardner is entering his fifth NFL season, which typically places a player in the category of experienced veteran. But if his age is correctly recorded as 24 rather than 25, he is as young as some players who are just beginning their professional careers. A first-round pick selected earlier this year by another NFL team turned 25 in April and has not yet played a single snap in the league. Gardner, entering a fifth season as one of the better cornerbacks in football, is the same age.
The trade that brought Gardner to Indianapolis was one of the more consequential of last season, involving two first-round picks and a wide receiver going to the New York Jets in exchange for a player who is expected to anchor the Colts’ secondary for years. Viewed through the lens of his corrected age, that investment looks even more attractive for a franchise building around a player in the early stage of what could be a very long career.
A correction that keeps needing to be made
What makes the situation mildly absurd is that Gardner has clearly been addressing this for some time. His comment that he was saying this once again suggests it is not the first time he has had to raise it publicly, and the patience with which he delivered the clarification indicated he does not expect it to be the last.
The spread of incorrect biographical data through sports media is not a new phenomenon, but Gardner’s case is a useful reminder that aggregated databases are only as accurate as their original sources, and that errors introduced early can persist indefinitely unless the subject himself keeps pushing back. Gardner appears committed to doing exactly that, however many times it takes.
He is 24. He was born in 2001. He has his license if anyone needs to see it.
