Commanders Post at The Warpath - View Single Post - Why is Sammy Baugh's #33 the only "Officially" retired number?

jdlea · 10-24-2012, 10:15 AM

I have 2 schools of thought on this.

On the one hand, I don't know that retiring numbers in the NFL is really all that feasible. I mean, with the number restrictions and such, it makes it slightly more difficult. Receivers, for a long period of time, were only allowed to wear numbers in the 80's, that changed, in my lifetime, but it would have been incredibly restrictive to retire numbers in the 80's when you consider you're probably going to have 8 guys (3 TE's and 5 WR's) on your team who would choose a number in the 80s. While the situation is a little different for Defensive backs, offensive linemen and such, it's still not all that feasible to retire the numbers of great players.

That leads me into my next thought. I kind of like the way Dallas approached thenumber 88. I like that handing Dez Bryant number 88 was essentially saying, "This is what we expect of you." The Pats did the same thing with Dont'a Hightower this year when they gave him Tedy Bruschi's #54. Supposedly that was symbolic in the same way that the 88 to Dez was; the issue with that is that they are apparently just going to forget that they also gave it to Brian Waters in between the time Bruschi retired and Hightower was drafted.

10-24-2012, 10:15 AM	#12
jdlea Playmaker Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Age: 40 Posts: 3,109	Re: Why is Sammy Baugh's #33 the only "Officially" retired number? I have 2 schools of thought on this. On the one hand, I don't know that retiring numbers in the NFL is really all that feasible. I mean, with the number restrictions and such, it makes it slightly more difficult. Receivers, for a long period of time, were only allowed to wear numbers in the 80's, that changed, in my lifetime, but it would have been incredibly restrictive to retire numbers in the 80's when you consider you're probably going to have 8 guys (3 TE's and 5 WR's) on your team who would choose a number in the 80s. While the situation is a little different for Defensive backs, offensive linemen and such, it's still not all that feasible to retire the numbers of great players. That leads me into my next thought. I kind of like the way Dallas approached thenumber 88. I like that handing Dez Bryant number 88 was essentially saying, "This is what we expect of you." The Pats did the same thing with Dont'a Hightower this year when they gave him Tedy Bruschi's #54. Supposedly that was symbolic in the same way that the 88 to Dez was; the issue with that is that they are apparently just going to forget that they also gave it to Brian Waters in between the time Bruschi retired and Hightower was drafted.