List of retired numbers

[Evan]

I was noticing a picture of Rams tackle John Williams recently when it suddenly struck me, "They hadn't retired Deacon Jones's number at that point?"

When I looked it up, it took the Rams until 2009 to retire Deacon's number. Anyone know why it took so long?

Then I found this list of all NFL retired numbers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_N ... ed_numbers

Most of them are either Hall of Famers, players whose lives were tragically cut short, and an occasional fan favorite.

Some questions:

Can someone explain why many teams just don't issue certain numbers, but don't officially retire them? Anyone have a list of unissued, but not retired, numbers?

The Redskins only have one player on this list, Sammy Baugh. Anyone know if they plan on resuming this practice? Darrell Green seems like an obvious choice.

The Steelers only have two - Joe Greene and Ernie Stautner, but they haven't given out Bradshaw or Franco's number. Any others they don't give out? Any reason they just don't officially retire those numbers?

The Bills apparently never officially retired OJ's number, which strikes me as odd as he was very popular for 17 years or so after he left Buffalo. The Bills have not issued 32 since then from what I can tell. Are there any other numbers of other teams that likely won't be issued due to infamy?

Did the Bengals start thinking they would retire numbers and thus retired Bob Johnson's, then discontinued the practice? Seems like an odd choice to be the only number retired (Ken Anderson, Ken Riley, etc.)

Any particular reason the Broncos retired Frank Tripucka's number?

What was the story on the Saints retiring Jim Taylor's number and the Packers not? I seem to recall it had to do with a feud of some kind.

[SixtiesFan]

I was watching a Packer game on TV in, I think, 1969. A Packer running back named Perry Williams came on the screen and the camera lingered on him. He was wearing Number 31. Frank Gifford, then with CBS, said: "When you play out your option, they don't retire your number."

IMO it was the most succinct comment I ever heard from Frank Gifford as an announcer. Football fans of that era knew Jim Taylor as Number 31 of the Packers. And that his level of play would usually result in his number being retired.

[BD Sullivan]

Any particular reason the Broncos retired Frank Tripucka's number?

He was the Broncos' first real star player--or at least put up huge numbers during the first three years, even if they mostly stunk during his time. He threw for 7,676 yards and 51 touchdowns.

Not sure what year the number was retired, but Manning is the only other Broncos player (according to PFR) to wear it. There was a mini-controversy in 1989, when David Treadwell was issued Tripucka's No. 18 and wore it during the preseason. It wasn't until just before the season started that someone in the organization realized that the number had already been retired.

[conace21]

The Bills have also unofficially retired #34 for Thurman Thomas.

[JuggernautJ]

Tangentially related: before I started coming to these boards (back when I thought I was the only person interested in football history) I came up with the following trivia question:
Two teams have uniform numbers retired for people who never played a down for the team.
Name the teams, numbers and people for whom the numbers were retired.

No one had ever been able to answer that question...
Until I came here. I posted that query and it was answered within about five minutes.

In fact, someone here even came up with a third possible answer.
That was all on the old boards so I haven't been able to locate that third answer.
Would someone here now be able to remind me of that third answer?

My original answer was:
Seahawks, 12, the fans and Browns, 45. Ernie Davis

[rhickok1109]

Tangentially related: before I started coming to these boards (back when I thought I was the only person interested in football history) I came up with the following trivia question:
Two teams have uniform numbers retired for people who never played a down for the team.
Name the teams, numbers and people for whom the numbers were retired.

No one had ever been able to answer that question...
Until I came here. I posted that query and it was answered within about five minutes.

In fact, someone here even came up with a third possible answer.
That was all on the old boards so I haven't been able to locate that third answer.
Would someone here now be able to remind me of that third answer?

My original answer was:
Seahawks, 12, the fans and Browns, 45. Ernie Davis

The Chiefs retired Stone Johnson's #33. He died from injuries suffered in a 1963 pre-season game, so he never played a regular-season game.

[ChrisBabcock]

Would someone here now be able to remind me of that third answer?

Stone Johnson - Chiefs #33

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Johnson

[JuggernautJ]

Thank you, Sirs.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled topic.

[LJP]

Mike Singletary's #50 was hibernated by the Bears from 1993-2012. With Singletary's permission LB James Anderson wore it in 2013 and Shea McClellin (2014-15) and Jerrell Freeman (2016-17) have had it since.

Brian Urlacher's #54 is currently in hibernation. With the 2015 change to the uniform policy that allowed LBs to also wear 40-49, it should stay that way.

Gale Sayers #40 wasn't used after he retired, until for some reason the Bears decided to issue it to a replacement player in 1987, despite there being plenty of numbers available. Sayers, Butkus (both 1994) and Ditka (2013) all had long waits.

At the time, George McCaskey said that Ditka's #89 would be the last number that the Bears retired. I doubt it stays that way though. Future policy changes may allow for more to be retired.

[BD Sullivan]

Gale Sayers #40 wasn't used after he retired, until for some reason the Bears decided to issue it to a replacement player in 1987, despite there being plenty of numbers available. Sayers, Butkus (both 1994) and Ditka (2013) all had long waits.

At the time, George McCaskey said that Ditka's #89 would be the last number that the Bears retired. I doubt it stays that way though. Future policy changes may allow for more to be retired.

Wasn't the Butkus delay related (in part) to his litigation against the team for the injuries that wrecked his career?