Malik Changes His Number
I feel bad for anyone who rushed out and impulse bought a Malik Nabers #9 jersey. Now you have a collector’s item, at least. This is one of those reasons I never buy a jersey before a player has earned it and become a team legend. I think the only Giants player that has arguably earned a jersey worth buying right now is probably Dexter Lawrence.
Nabers switched to #1, and this was a bit of a controversy because #1 was technically a retired number for the Giants. In fact, it was the first retired jersey number of all pro football. Ray Flaherty had his number retired in the year 1935, making it almost 90 years that nobody on the Giants could wear the number. It’s actually kind of a big deal that his family gave permission for Nabers to wear it. This is of course the Giants special centennial season though, so unretiring a historic number seems fitting in some ways. Plus, who could possibly be mad about the memory of Flaherty being besmirched? How many people are alive today to even remember Ray Flaherty? Maybe some really old cranky grandpa in Yonkers is furious but nobody else cares outside the subset of people who have a problem with un-retiring numbers.
I think this is great, honestly. As some folks have said in various spaces, this probably raises the profile for Flaherty, a guy nobody knows about unless you are a complete football history nerd. So many dudes before the Super Bowl era have largely been completely forgotten about and it’s nice to get a bit of spotlight on a lost legend. More numbers should be unretired. Or, and this is the real take I wanted to spit, but maybe retiring numbers is stupid to begin with?
A lot of the oldest franchises in American sports are running into a slight number availability problem. They’ve been around so long that they’ve had enough legends over the years to retire too many numbers. The Giants have 14 retired numbers. The Bears also have 14. The New York Yankees have fucking 24 numbers retired, and that is including the #8 twice, so maybe it’s 23. It doesn’t seem like a lot when you see 14 out of 99 numbers retired, but it can only get worse. It seems like a big honor to retire a number, but is it really? I think it’s mostly a waste of time. The Raiders have a policy of not retiring numbers and I think that’s the right way to go.
Honor a player, sure. Stick them in the ring of honor or hall of champions or whatever the franchise does to celebrate their historical members. Stick their name and number on a banner in the rafters or on the stadium ring. Throw a statue outside. Stick it on a big fat plaque in the lobby. Makes perfect sense to me. I don’t see the point in retiring the number. The number doesn’t matter. If a Giants player came along and wore #10 just like Eli did, I really don’t think I’d care. The number 10 was not what made Eli important. It was Eli himself. His number is just a thing. It doesn’t need to be hallowed and respected like some sacred relic. If you wanted, you could put a moratorium on using the number for like, 10 years, just so there is not someone coming along and immediately causing confusion until a couple of player generations in. The player’s name is what deserves to be remembered, not the random number they wore on their jersey.
I had a follower mention to me that retiring numbers should be reserved for like, Jackie Robinson. I can agree with that. Jackie was more than a great baseball player. His importance transcended the history of the sport. He was bigger than baseball. His number 42 is retired by all MLB teams. This feels appropriate for a guy like Robinson. I don’t think football has anyone in history even close to the level of cultural importance Jackie has. The closest case I can even think of would be maybe Jim Thorpe?
Don’t retire numbers. There are so many other ways to honor players.
The Funko placement, lmfao
As a complete football history nerd, I’m really happy to see Flaherty’s number unretired. I do think that numbers should be allowed to be retired if a guy is iconic for a franchise to the point that’s the first number anyone thinks of when, like #52 for the Ravens, #56 for the Giants, #34 for the Bears, #12 for the Patriots, #13 for the Dolphins, etc. However, some teams most iconic number has multiple great players associated with it (I.E. #20 for the Lions), and not every franchise has a guy that iconic. I don’t think anyone is really going to give a shit in 20 years if some random punter wears #13 for the Buccaneers.
Though as a 2000s kid from Tampa, I would be it bit of a shock to see or a Bucs player wear 55, 20, 99, 47, or 40, or 28. The same would have probably gone for my grandpa (RIP) if he had seen another Buccaneer wear 63.
On the other hand, colleges retiring #s is 100% moronic.
..yeah esp. when you get schools flagged for having 2 players on the field at the same time with the same number.
Another team that has a major retired number problem is the Boston Celtics who, like the Yankees, also have 24 retired numbers hanging in the rafters. It’s always a funny topic because you’re left to wonder how they’ll be able to get around this in the future, especially after Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown eventually call it a career. Safe to assume that #0 and #7 are going to be added to that list as well, making things even worse. And there are even people who have called for Marcus Smart’s #36 to be retired too, given his contributions to the team for an extended period.
Personally, my fix for this is basically you’re arguing in favor of – Honorary Numbers. This is something that a lot of college teams do where they allow certain players to wear the same number of a past team legend to honor that player. This way you can re-use numbers while still showing respect for the greats that wore them prior. The only time a number should be outright retired is when a player becomes a generational icon, like #12 for the Patriots or #23 for Bulls. Guys that will be forever remembered and talked about long after they’ve left the sport.
On an unrelated note, big agree on waiting to buy jerseys. Football jerseys are such a weirdly big investment because you can only wear them in very specific situations and if the guy sucks or leaves the team on bad terms, you’ll probably never wear it again. Why I stick with just buying T-shirt jerseys unless I really like a player. Way less of an investment and I can still wear the shirt even if the guy ends up sucking since it’s actually comfortable to wear unlike a jersey.
My SO is REALLY slow to buy jerseys because she wants to be sure that she doesn’t get the jersey of some scrub who flames out or ends up getting into some kind of legal trouble. We’re Twins fans and she JUST consented to getting a Joe Mauer jersey now that he’s in the Hall of Fame. She has an old Adrian Peterson jersey, but I’m working on her to get a new Justin Jefferson jersey so we can match….it’s going to be a long football season!
TBF on average an NBA team you only have 15 players max at any given time. Meanwhile I’m the NFL you have to have 53 active players at any given time, not including practice squad ones as well. It’s a hell of a lot easier to find numbers for 15 outta 76 options VS 53 outta 76.
This is very true. Honestly, half of the argument with the Celtics is less about the availability of numbers and more about the aesthetics of future numbers. NBA players are able to pick any number 0-99, but for the most part players tend to pick single digits, or double digit numbers with ones and tens no higher than 5. You rarely see anyone in the NBA wear anything above 55, and the few that do aren’t exactly well known (Luca Doncic is the only example I can think of who wears a “weird” NBA number with #77).
It’s running joke that new Celtics players are often forced to pick really weird digits because of the amount of retired numbers they have, which makes me wonder how they’ll get around it once all the normal numbers are gone.
I’m a fan of the futurama route. All players numbers were fractions.
Mad props to anyone who makes a Futurama reference! I’m all down for fractions, or simply going down the road of familial naming.
If I play for the Giants and I want to wear number 56, it gets a superscripted “JR” to separate it from the retired 56. Then if I become a superstar and they retire 56JR, the next player who wants 56 gets a superscripted III. And if HE is a superstar and the number is retired, it becomes 56IV, etc. (The comment box here doesn’t want to accept copy/pasted superscript, so you’ll have to use your imagination on these, sorry.) BOOM, problem goes away forever.
The small pepsi, great call back
I’ve always liked how the Cowboys treated #88. Big shot receivers can get it, but they have a ton to live up to.
Let’s Remember a Dude: Sam Adkins, the only Seahawk to ever wear 12.
Jim Zorn wore it for one season in 1979 too.
PFR thinks his number was still 10 that season, so I had to dig deeper. Found football cards on eBay showing him in 10 that year. Oh, wow. I found a tweet saying that Zorn’s jersey was so badly damaged during a 1979 game that he had to wear Adkins’ 12 jersey. So I guess in the most pedantic way (the very best kind of pedantry), Jim Zorn has also worn 12 for the Seahawks.
An issue football has with retired numbers that baseball does not, is that a baseball team only needs 28 numbers at a time, while a football team needs 53. The Yankees, with 23 unique retired numbers and 26 players on the roster (expanding to 28 on Sept 1) have more unused numbers than the Raiders will on Opening Day.
Football also limits the number ranges for each position, further complicating things. Retire twenty quarterback numbers and you’re in big trouble. Feels like something that could happen in a few hundred years of a team.
Wayne Gretzky was like that for hockey – especially after his trade to LA. I’d say he’s in that Robinson category of “whole sport retires your number”
They don’t call home “The Great One” for nothing.
Maybe I’m in the minority, but for me, I don’t think it’s a big deal if you buy a jersey and the player changes numbers. I can understand why it’s less than ideal, but I can’t imagine losing sleep over it. I bought a Kiwanuka Jersey when he was 97 on the Giants, and shortly after he changed to 94. Really didn’t bother me that much. It just gives you the chance to say you were an OG fan.
I’ve always really liked how soccer generally assigns numbers to specific roles. The 10 is usually worn by either the best player or an attacking CM that facilitates the attack. 7s are usually wingers with a bit of speed. 9s are usually forward strikers. 3s are usually either the best defender or a solid CB and so on.
The example in football that I usually see is Dallas giving the number 88 to its star receiver (Irvin, Dez, CeeDee) or maybe 52/54 going to a stud field-general-style linebacker (Lewis, Willis, Wagner, Urlacher). I think it could be a cool way for each team (maybe the sport as a whole) to build a culture around their history. Maybe Minnesota continues the trend of star safeties by giving their next one number 22 (Krause and Smith). Maybe Will Anderson takes number 99 and continues Watt’s legacy as a disruptive pass rusher. Maybe the Giants build somethin around 92 for their DL? Could be really fun!
Worrying about your favourite new player changing jersey numbers becomes less of a problem if you also observe the simple rule that adults aren’t supposed to wear customized jerseys with names and numbers of players younger than themselves. That is almost as bad as a grownup not accompanying his kids bringing a baseball glove to the ball game.
This is a very dumb and insecure rule
wear whatever jersey you want
I think it depends on the sport. It is a lot easier to retire a number in basketball where you only have a dozen guys on the roster but 101 numbers to choose from (including both 0 and 00). Football can have something like 68 guys on the roster all needing numbers, AND you have limitations as to which positions can wear which numbers. When including the practice squad and IR, you might reasonably have 4 QBs, 2 K/P, 9 WRs, and 5 TEs (20 guys) all needing numbers between 1-19 and 80-89. Retiring numbers in football will create log jobs really fast.
I’m a Pats fan. I’m fine with Ben Coates, David Givens, and Rob Gronkowski all wearing 87.
I think it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs who only retire a number if the player dies while on the team.
A minor correction about the Yankees numbers issue. All baseball teams invite a huge number of guys to spring training. Between the extra players and the coaches wearing numbers, the team used 69 out of the 75 available numbers. There was an article about it a year or so ago.
Yeah OT but why *do* baseball managers and coaches wear uniforms with numbers?
The tradition of player-managers I would guess. I’m not trying to say that they should, but it still happens and causes more problems.
I really like the ideas here, that retiring numbers should be saved for true icons of the sport, or even icons that transcend the sport. The only other scenario I can see being appropriate is something like Joe Delaney with my Chiefs – someone who died a hero, and though his jersey was never officially retired, no Chief has since worn #37.
I think it should be a different and very nuanced set of unwritten rules for each fanbase.
Seriously? What’s the problem, no one can count higher than 99 so we don’t give players numbers bigger than that? Use a smaller font, go over 100 and move on, some of the players are as wide as a billboard and can carry it, FFS.
I really think that the only way numbers should be retired is if the player is in the GOAT conversation at their position. Maybe players who changed the course of a franchise. Or players who are the first people you think of when you think of a team. So with this very simple explanation, lets go through the list of players whose numbers should be retired.
Cardinals: 11 and 40, for Larry Fitzgerald and Pat Tillman.
Ravens: 52 and 20, for Ray Lewis and Ed Reed.
Falcons: 21 and 11, for Deion Sanders and Julio Jones.
Bills: 78, for Bruce Smith.
Panthers: 90 and 89, for Julius Peppers and Steve Smith.
Bengals: 85, for Chad Ochocinco.
Bears: 34 and 23, for Walter Payton and Devin Hester.
Browns: 70 and 32, for Joe Thomas and Jim Brown.
Cowboys: 22, 73, and 88, for Emmitt Smith, Larry Allen, and Michael Irvin.
Broncos: 7, 58, and 24, for John Elway, Von Miller, and Champ Bailey.
Lions: 20 and 81, for Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson.
Texans: 10, 80, and 99, for DeAndre Hopkins, Andre Johnson, and JJ Watt.
Packers: 4 and 12, for Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.
Colts: 18, 19, 32, 88, and 93, for Peyton Manning, Johnny Unitas, Edgerrin James, Marvin Harrison, and Dwight Freeney.
Rams: 13, 28, 75, 85, and 99, for Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Deacon Jones, Jack Youngblood, and Aaron Donald.
Jaguars: 28, 71, and 82, for Fred Taylor, Tony Boselli, and Jimmy Smith.
Vikings: 28, 84, and 93, for Adrian Peterson, Randy Moss, and John Randle.
Chiefs: 15, 58, and 88, for Patrick Mahomes, Derrick Thomas, and Tony Gonzalez.
Saints: 9, for Drew Brees.
Raiders: 32, 34, and 63, for Marcus Allen, Bo Jackson, and Gene Upshaw.
Giants: 56 and 92, for Lawrence Taylor and Michael Strahan.
Chargers: 19, 21, and 55, for Lance Alworth, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Junior Seau.
Eagles: 20, 62, and 92, for Brian Dawkins, Jason Kelce, and Reggie White.
Dolphins: 13, and 39, for Dan Marino and Larry Csonka.
49ers: 8, 16, 42, and 80, for Steve Young, Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, and Jerry Rice.
Patriots: 4, 12, 73, and 87, for Adam Vinatieri, Tom Brady, John Hannah, and Gronk.
Seahawks: 24, 37, 71, 80, Marshawn Lynch, Shaun Alexander, Walter Jones, and Steve Largent.
Jets: 12, 24, 68, and 73, for Joe Namath, Darrelle Revis, Kevin Mawae, and Joe Klecko.
Buccaneers: 40, 55, and 99, for Mike Alstott, Derrick Brooks, and Warren Sapp.
Steelers: 12, 32, and 43, for Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, and Troy Polamalu.
Commanders: 21, for Sean Taylor.
Titans: 74, for Bruce Matthews.
There, I solved it. I probably missed some people, so if you think I should add anyone, comment.
Packer fan here. You’re definitely missing Don Hutson and Reggie White for us.
I know you have Reggie down for the Eagles, but he played almost as long here and won a Super Bowl with us.
As for Don Hutson, he may not be in the GOAT conversation anymore, since Rice and Moss, but he legitimately was for about forty years.
Replying super late on this and you probably won’t see it, but I totally agree on the Don Hutson one. Slipped my mind as I was making this and I couldn’t picture him in a jersey, only the eye black and leather helmet. Definitely deserves to be on here, and you bring up an interesting point about the not in the GOAT conversation any more. Many, many years down the line, will current day greats like Justin Jefferson be remembered as the best at their position? No, probably not. The game of football keeps evolving and with that, the players keep getting better. Just something to think about. As for Reggie, I see the super bowl point and playing there for a while, and I truly think it’s a toss up for the two franchises, so they can both have him.
I kind of like the idea of bringing a number back after some very long time, like 90 years. If a player even recognizes the name after all that time, like it’s a truly legendary player, they could always choose not to wear it.
I like what the Cowboys did with 88 where they made it their WR legacy number where their most hyped WR prospect takes that number and adds to the legacy. Pearson, Irvin, Dez, and now Lamb.
Adding to your point about the league-wide retirements, I do agree with your sentiment regarding Jackie and believe there are a few more candidates for similar treatment.
Bill Russell – Obviously this one did actually happen and I believe it was extremely deserved. Similar to how Jackie may not have been the greatest baseball player ever, they were both extremely instrumental in pushing their sports forward and opening gateways for athletes that had previously been closed. Not to mention they were both absolute ballers as well.
Gretzky – Still feel like, in any given team sport, Gretzky is the only player who is so far and ahead the greatest at what he did that it wouldn’t feel outrageous to just hang 99 up in every NHL arena.
Brady – Probably more controversial than Gretzky all things considered, but he is the undisputed GOAT of football. The only thing holding him back would be that he didn’t have the best “arm talent” of all time, but nobody’s resume even sniffs what Tom accomplished in his career.
MJ/Lebron – Easily the most controversial pick here and the farthest stretch out of these four. However, I think it’s so unique that basketball’s #1 and #2 guys (no preference here) both played out most or all of their career in the same number. This point would be bolstered if Lebron just wore 23 his whole playing career (thanks Pat Riley), but most of his legacy will be in the 23 jersey anyways.
For some reason it totally blanked on me that 99 was already retired league-wide. Woops