Retiring numbers?

Wanted to get everyone's opinion on teams retiring numbers. What is your stance on teams doing this, are you for it, against it, or don't care? Something I've been thinking about, in all different sports, is retired numbers. There are so many teams with retired numbers and a lot of times it takes the fun out of when a high profile newly acquired player can't even wear it because it is retired.

The Niners currently have 12 retired numbers, many of which are players who most have never seen or known. The Yankees no longer have any single digit numbers left after retiring Derek Jeter's number. I just am at the point where it's getting ridiculous.

The Niners didn't issue #97 for 9 seasons after B.Y. retired, and finally did so last year, and thankfully they did. Is Frank Gore's number next? They wouldn't let McKinnon wear it. Are they going to retire Patrick Willis' number too? My personal opinion is that teams should hold ceremonies, hang the jerseys somewhere in the stadium, honor the player, maybe even take it out of circulation for 5-10 years. But to completely retire a number in today's sports, is just ridiculous. A number belongs to the team, not a player. Thoughts?

Because there are only 101 numbers to work with (0-99, and 00), retiring a lot of numbers only has a significant drawback to football and its 53-man roster and position number restrictions. For the other major sports it really isn't a problem - even baseball when it goes to 40-man rosters in September could have a team with 30-35 retired numbers and still have 25+ numbers available beyond their roster.

Do what the Cowboys and Raiders do...those teams retire JERSEYS (player's last name + #), not numbers exclusively. After a moratorium of a few years, the number becomes available to be reissued to a different player again. The previously retired jersey is still honored thereafter (usually displayed prominently in the stadium, either as a actual jersey display or a "ring of honor" (8 Aikman, 12 Staubach, 88 Irvin, 88 Pearson, etc.) The Niners also do the latter in their stadium, but the numbers honored are permanently retired and not reissued.

Flash forward to the year 2500 at Yankee Stadium the starting lineups are announced, batting first shortstop #248.........................

As it pertains to the NFL and it's teams, just put the player in your organization's HoF / Ring of Honor. The number(s) they played with will always be associated with them. Otherwise, at a certain point, you'd run out of numbers.

The Tennessee Titans have 6 numbers retired. Of the 6 players, only 1 ever actually played for Tennessee or the Titans (Bruce Matthews). All others were during the Houston Oilers era. Is that really even necessary?

There's already a bunch of threads on this.

There are 99 numbers, and only 53 roster spots. The 49ers have had an incredibly rich history of legendary players, and have only retired 12 numbers in 71 years, and 2 that are unofficially retired with Willis and Gore. That means only 67 of an available 99 are going to be taken at any given time.

That leaves 32 extra numbers, which in best case scenario would take 150 more years to burn through.

I will never understand why so many people cry about honoring legends with retired numbers. Were not "running out."

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:

Do what the Cowboys and Raiders do...those teams retire JERSEYS (player's last name + #), not numbers exclusively. After a moratorium of a few years, the number becomes available to be reissued to a different player again. The previously retired jersey is still honored thereafter (usually displayed prominently in the stadium, either as a actual jersey display or a "ring of honor" (8 Aikman, 12 Staubach, 88 Irvin, 88 Pearson, etc.) The Niners also do the latter in their stadium, but the numbers honored are permanently retired and not reissued.

What's the point? The act of retiring a number is the honor. Its really not a big deal to retire a handful of numbers to show respect to your biggest legends. I guarantee it would be seen as far more meaningful by the player if nobody was ever going to wear his number again. Otherwise it's just respect they already had. "We're going to hang your jersey up and say you were awesome". Ok?

I don't mind it. I think numbers are overrated but it would be weird to see another receiver wear 80 on this team.

Im not too passionate either way. It should be reserved for the best of the best. For the 49ers, IMO, 16, 80 can be removed from circulation.

it's dumb.

Originally posted by facestabber:
Im not too passionate either way. It should be reserved for the best of the best. For the 49ers, IMO, 16, 80 can be removed from circulation.

It would be weird to see someone in #42 too imo.

I think they're retiring numbers is a strange and unnecessary tradition. The numbers do not belong to the players.

I did not forget about Eric Wright when Deion Sanders came to the team and took number 21. I did not forget about Deion Sanders when Frank Gore took number 21. in the same way I am not going to forget about any of the 49er greats that I have seen just because their jersey number gets reused.