On Wednesday, it was revealed that the New York Giants would be unretiring Ray Flaherty’s No.1 for rookie Malik Nabers.
The Giants, of course, did the right thing and got permission from the Flaherty family before making the move and announcement.
Nabers is excited to sport his new number with pride while honoring the Giants legend and NFL Hall of Famer.
Still, the decision has been met with much criticism from the fans and members of the media alike. It has cast people into two entirely separate camps and created a debate on whether such a decision is justified.
Nabers’ fellow wide receiver, Wan’Dale Robinson, has a potential solution that would satisfy both sides.
Wan'Dale Robinson had a good idea yesterday when I talked to him about Malik Nabers getting No. 1. Some of the players kicked around the idea and thought it would be cool to get permission to put an extra patch on jerseys to honor the former player if a number was taken out of…
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) August 30, 2024
Robinson’s idea is certainly an interesting way to bring retired jersey numbers back and make them available for current players while also honoring the player who the number was originally retired for.
Robinson’s idea would also have to be within the NFL’s strict uniform rules.
As the offseason progressed, it was clear Nabers would not be wearing No. 9 in the regular season, which belongs to kicker Graham Gano. The NFL recently loosened up their jersey number rules in recent years, giving wide receivers the opportunity to wear single-digit numbers.
Although the Giants did unretire a number previously in 1961, it likely wasn’t known by many of today’s fans that bringing a number out of retirement was even possible.
However, with the Giants and Nabers bringing the No.1 out of retirement, it will be interesting to see if this is an outlier or if this is going to start a trend for other teams.
The reality is, that as time presses forward, only so many numbers are available. Either teams will eventually have to start issuing triple digits or unretire numbers for players to wear.
