Overdue and Ironic

Saw the news this week that the Washington Commanders announced plans to retired Darrell Green's #28. My first reaction was something along the lines of, "what took them so long?". There aren't many ex-Skins more iconic than Green, nor many moments more memorable than him walking down Eric Dickerson. 

But after I dug into it a bit, I realized that the Washington franchise really doesn't retire numbers, or it didn't (with one notable exception) in the Era That Shall Not Be Discussed. In fact, not one player from the Golden Gibbs Era has his number retired. Nary a hog, regretfully not a Riggo, monstrously no Monk, terribly not a Theismann, mournfully no Mann, distressingly no Dexter.

The Washington franchise has been pretty stingy when it comes to retiring numbers (and ain't that in keeping with Little Danny Starfucker's ethos: waste money on washed up big names, skimp on stuff that might make fans happy). Turns out they're not alone. 

Retire Riggo!

Since the franchise's inception in the 1930s, Washington has honored just four players by retiring their number: Sonny Jurgensen, Sammy Baugh, Charlie Taylor, and Sean Taylor. One of those is obviously not like the others. Of the teams with histories of similar duration, only the Steelers have retired fewer (three). Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, and the Raiders notably do not retire numbers, nor do the Saints, who actually unretired a couple of numbers under the current management. The Ravens are open to it, but haven't done so yet, which makes Ray Lewis and Ed Reed a bit curious.

The Bears (14), Giants (14), and Niners (12) are profligate, while the Bengals (speaking of stingy owners) and Jags have one retired number each, one of which you'd easily guess, and the other you never would.

I enjoyed my little trip down NFL numerological history. Hope it'll keep you entertained for at least a few minutes.