Retired Numbers
Most NFL teams have retired some numbers in honor of the team's best players. Generally when a number is retired, future players for the team may not wear it. However, exceptions have been made when a player with a retired number allows an active player to wear his number. However, very rarely does the new player accept the offer. When the Kansas City Chiefs acquired Joe Montana in 1993, Hall of Famer Len Dawson gave Montana permission to wear his old #16, Montana's number in San Francisco, but Montana declined it and wore 19 instead, which was the sum of his numbers at Notre Dame (3) and the 49ers (16).
One exception offer that was accepted was made in 2004, when Steve Largent, whose #80 was retired by the Seattle Seahawks, allowed Jerry Rice to wear #80 when he briefly played for the team. Rice, a star who mostly played with the 49ers and Raiders, had also worn #80 throughout his career. Rice made the same gesture when the 49ers signed longtime St. Louis Rams wide receiver Isaac Bruce in 2008. Rice offered Bruce the number, since Bruce had worn 80 during his 14-year stay with the Rams. (Though the number was not officially retired until 2010, the 49ers had not issued #80 since Rice left the team in 2001.) However, both Bruce and the 49ers agreed on not wearing 80 as a 49er, and wore number 88 during his two-year stint with the 49ers before retiring.
Another accepted offer was made in 2012, when Peyton Manning, whose #18 had been retired by the Denver Broncos was given to Manning, only after Frank Tripucka offered the jersey to the four-time MVP. Manning had worn #18 with the Indianapolis Colts for 13 seasons, and his number was retired by the Colts after he was released.
The 49ers made another exception for quarterback Trent Dilfer to wear number 12, which had been retired in honor of John Brodie. Dilfer, a close friend of Brodie, wore the number in tribute to him and to garner attention for Brodie's potential election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Similarly, Detroit Lions linebacker Joe Schmidt allowed Pat Swilling to wear his retired number 56 when Swilling was acquired in 1993.
The Chicago Bears have retired the most numbers (13), followed by the New York Giants (11). Some newer teams have yet to retire any.
The New Orleans Saints have retired the numbers 31 and 81 in honor of Jim Taylor and Doug Atkins, who played on the first Saints franchise in 1967. Strangely enough, neither Taylor nor Atkins has had their uniform numbers retired by the teams for which they played the vast majority of their careers before coming to the expansion Saints, Taylor with the Green Bay Packers and Atkins with the Bears. (Current All-Pro cornerback Al Harris, in fact, recently wore number 31 for the Packers.) Taylor played only one year with the Saints before retiring, while Atkins' last three seasons were in the Big Easy.
The numbers 7, 12, 40, and 70 have each been retired by five teams, more than any other numbers.
One of the most notable retired numbers is number 12 for the Seattle Seahawks, who retired the number in 1984 in honor of the "12th man", or the Seahawks fans, as opposed to a particular player. Since then, the team sells number 12 jerseys with the word "Fan" where the player's last name would be.
The Indianapolis Colts have chosen to retain the retired status of numbers retired when the club was in Baltimore, a point which irritated former Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas. Incensed at the way former owner Robert Irsay moved the Colts out of town late at night on March 29, 1984, Unitas severed all ties to the Colts franchise and insisted he only be listed as a member of the "Baltimore Colts". Unitas was soon joined by teammates Lenny Moore, Art Donovan, Raymond Berry, and Gino Marchetti, all of whom also had their numbers retired by the club in Baltimore. (Many of these players would later support the Baltimore Ravens.) The Colts recently retired number 18 for quarterback Peyton Manning although he continues to play in the NFL for the Denver Broncos, the club however has not retired any further numbers of former Baltimore Colts.
The Dallas Cowboys have not retired any numbers despite a long list of HOFs. Instead, the Cowboys do not issue the number, as is the case with number 12 for Roger Staubach and number 8 for Troy Aikman, or the number is used as a sign of legacy. The number 22 was used by HOFs Bob Hayes and Emmitt Smith. The number 88 is used as a lineage for the top WR brought in by the team. It was first made famous by Drew Pearson in the 70s, before Michael Irvin used it in the 90s. The number now belongs to Dez Bryant.
Read more about this topic: Uniform Number (American Football)
Famous quotes containing the words retired and/or numbers:
“I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit, and to mothball his opinions.”
—Omar Bradley (1893–1981)
“The barriers of conventionality have been raised so high, and so strangely cemented by long existence, that the only hope of overthrowing them exists in the union of numbers linked together by common opinion and effort ... the united watchword of thousands would strike at the foundation of the false system and annihilate it.”
—Mme. Ellen Louise Demorest 1824–1898, U.S. women’s magazine editor and woman’s club movement pioneer. Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mirror of Fashions, p. 203 (January 1870)