Who cares about numbers, anyway?

by ETVal on May 9, 2008 9:15 AM EDT in News

Meet Kenny Phillips. No. 1 on your Giants' draft board. No. 1 at the University of Miami. No. 1 in my heart ... for taking uniform number 21.

Yep, when rookie mini-camp opens today Phillips will be wearing 21, the number formerly worn by some former Giant running back. What was his name? Tiki something. Blabber? Blubber? Berber?

Seriously, it is interesting to me how quickly the Giants have put No. 21 back into circulation. I doubt there will be an outcry like the one that happened this spring when the Yankees tried to put their own No. 21, formerly worn by Paul O'Neill, back in circulation.

In fact, I doubt anyone will really care at all.

Why is it that, in baseball, we get all worked up about uniform numbers and which ones should no longer be worn? In football, though, we don't seem to give a hoot.

The Giants have retired only 11 numbers in their history. They are as follows:

1 -- Ray Flaherty
4 -- Tuffy Leemans
7 -- Mel Hein
11 -- Phil Simms
14 -- Y.A. Tittle
16 -- Frank Gifford
32 -- Al Blozis
40 -- Joe Morrison
42 -- Charlie Conerly
50 -- Ken Strong
56 -- Lawrence Taylor

Oh, and one more thing. Bryan Kehl, the rookie linebacker from BYU, will be wearing No. 53 when he hits the field this morning. Harry Carson's 53.

How is it that Simms has his number retired, but Carson doesn't? Isn't Carson the one in the Hall of Fame?

Honestly, it doesn't bother that 21 is already in circulation for the Giants. It does bother me, though, that the Giants haven't retired Carson's number.

Your thoughts?

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Agreed

53 should be retired. I believe Brandon Short was 53 his first time with the Giants as well. I understand there are only so many numbers to go around when you have 45 guys on the roster, but still, its Harry Carson.

I have no problem with 21 being used again, I don’t think Reyna Thompson will mind either

Giants fan from the womb to the tomb

by jrs1940 on May 9, 2008 9:44 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

What bothers me is that

Siim’s # has been reitred. Always liked him, thought he did a good job as a Giant, recognize he probaly had the greatest game of any SB QB, but still don’t believe he’s worthy of having his # retired. Same goes with Joe Morrison. Al Blozis I understand. He only played two years before getting killed in combat during WWII. He was a sure HOFer and a war hero. I wrote a little blurb about him on BBV last year.

by george cronin on May 9, 2008 9:45 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Simms

My feeling is that if you are going to retire Simms number you have to retire Carson’s. Simms was a good, gritty QB and I loved him when he played with the Giants. But, Carson is in the Hall and was a better player.

by ETVal on May 9, 2008 10:02 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

One more thing

I guarantee you Tiki has something to say about it, and he will bash Coughlin (again) for it

Giants fan from the womb to the tomb

by jrs1940 on May 9, 2008 9:46 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

If he does, his lips are looser than I thought.

You would think that with all the scorn and ridicule Blabber’s mouth has brought down on him he has learned to keep it shut.

by george cronin on May 9, 2008 9:49 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

I hope he does

and the team starts training camp ALL wearing 21.

We're only gonna score 17 points?

by big blue wrecking crew on May 9, 2008 10:15 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

My guess is

for teams that don’t put the player’s name on the jersey, like the Yankees, the number practically is their name. Although I wouldn’t call it an outcry, their is a similar sentiment for college football jersey numbers as well, I think for nearly the same reason.

by rzor on May 9, 2008 9:51 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

BTW, just because I don't think Morrison

wasn’t worthy of having his # retired doesn’t mean i don’t think he’s worthy of being considred for the All-time Giants team. He is. He was a vey valuable player.

by george cronin on May 9, 2008 9:52 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Simms

I have no problem with his number being retired. Seeing someone else wear number 11 would just never look right. There are just certain players that you come to identify with their number

Simms, Messier, Mantle, LT, Gretzky are a few that come to mind for me.

Tiki can’t help himself George, he loves to hear himself talk

Giants fan from the womb to the tomb

by jrs1940 on May 9, 2008 9:52 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Wait a minuite, jr, I think you've given me a partial explanation

at least for the retired # mystery: (Some) fans ID (some) players with the # on their jersey? Is that it (at least partially?) No wonder I don’t get that part of it. I can’t tell you the number on the jersey of any Giants player on the retired jersey list. I can’t tell you the number on the jersey of any Giants player, now or in the past, not even my all-time favorites.
On a different front. Al Blozis—you younger guys have no idea how famous that guy was in his day, a champion shotputter and the best defensive tackle in his time, maybe even better than Weinmeister, who came along after WWII.

by george cronin on May 9, 2008 10:18 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Any Giants player?

Come one George, you had to have known LT’s! LOL.

by potroast on May 9, 2008 3:12 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

The more I look at retired #s of Giants players,

the less sense it makes. In addition to Carson, what happend to the likes of Tunnel, Robustelli, Huff, etc.?

by george cronin on May 9, 2008 10:04 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Numbers

I just don’t know. I think there should be some respect given to these guys.

by ETVal on May 9, 2008 10:15 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

This is a great point ...

what the hell are the Giants thinking?

by potroast on May 9, 2008 3:12 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

#53 will always be Carson

I do not know the standard the Giants use to retire numbers or if there is a standard, but to me #53 will always be Harry Carson. If I were a player, I would want to make my own number great rather than trying to play out from under the shadow of a number previously made famous by an all time great Giant.

by CNJGiants on May 9, 2008 10:41 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Probably will be retired soon

I would like to think that with Carson finally getting into the HOF, the Giants will have his # retired sometime soon. Jersey numbers are finalized, so Kehl can always change. Plus if you look at the Giants roster by number, you see that all the 90s are taken as well as all the available 50s. What other numbers can LBs wear?

by mgr135 on May 9, 2008 11:33 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Thanks, mg

that sheds a little more light on the mystery.

by george cronin on May 9, 2008 11:40 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Which is kinda funny...

Seriously, it is interesting to me how quickly the Giants have put No. 21 back into circulation. I doubt there will be an outcry like the one that happened this spring when the Yankees tried to put their own No. 21, formerly worn by Paul O’Neill, back in circulation.

Which is kinda funny, when you consider that Barber played his entire career here and was twice the player that O’Neill was.

by JoshNY on May 9, 2008 4:10 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

crazy

You asked for opinion and I will pare down the words on the response.

Simms’ number should still be in use today.

Carson’s should be retired ASAP.

Number 21 should be currently available. A sad reality in culture today is that, a lot of the time, people remember players by what they did most recently regarding the team. People most remember Tiki popping off about Coughlin and the Giants and about being happy about retirement; they don’t remember how he literally carried the offense in many games. Traitor is a word that I’ve heard in relation to him.

Apparently the team had better vision than I have. I would’ve let him go early in his career, whatwith all of the fumbles. There probably wouldn’t have been a #21 issue had I been in a position to make such a move.

I’m not a baseball fan in any capacity, but I know from conversation that numbers or stats are incredibly more important to fans in baseball than in football. Maybe the jersey thing has something to do with that.

We didn't even have a chance for the "perfect season", but we did have the perfect ending.

by GAgiantfan on May 13, 2008 6:50 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

QBs

There you QBs are different. Whether it’s right or wrong, we all know it’s true. A QB who spends, 10+ years on the same team, has two rings and Super Bowl MVP is going to have that number retired everytime.

by queler on May 13, 2008 10:02 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs