The next number up is #53–linebackers and linemen (primarily centers).
Harry Carson – New York Giants – The Hall of Fame linebacker played from 1976 to 1988, made 9 Pro Bowls, and helped the Giants win Super Bowl XXI. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006.
Len Ford – Los Angeles Dons, Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers – The Hall of Fame defensive end wore #53 for his first two years in Cleveland, before switching to #80. I’ve not found a record of what he wore in Los Angeles with the Dons of the AAFC.
Mike Webster – Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs – The Hall of Fame center wore #53 in his final two seasons, playing in Kansas City, where he originally signed on as the offensive line coach. He will make the list for #52 for sure.
Alex Wojciechowicz – Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles – According to ProFootballReference.com, Hall of Famer Wojciechowicz wore #53 in at least his final season with the Eagles, although I found no pictures of him in it.
Mick Tingelhoff – Minnesota Vikings – One of the most frequently mentioned potential senior candidates for the Hall of Fame, Tingelhoff wore #53 for all 17 of his seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, including his five All-Pro and six Pro Bowl seasons.
Randy Gradishar – Denver Broncos- The Broncos linebacker started as #52, but switched to #53 in 1976 after his first of seven Pro Bowls. Combined with his two All-Pro seasons, he is bound to start coming up in senior candidacy conversations for the Hall of Fame sooner or later.
Bill Romanowski – San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders – Say what you want about the character of Romanowski, he wore #53 for 16 seasons and four teams, and made a couple Pro Bowls along the way.
No current players are real close at cracking this list–NaVorro Bowman is probably the best, with Maurkice Pouncey up there with him from the offensive line side. Super Bowl XLVIII MVP Malcolm Smith also wears it.
So, what say you–who is the best #53? Let us know who got your vote in the comments…and let us know if you think we missed someone.
We’re going from a not very impressive list of players who are competing to be the Best #25 in NFL history to one of the most storied numbers in league history.
The #80 rivals the #81 as perhaps the deepest and most competitive jersey digit the league’s teams have ever handed out.
When we wrote our first By the Numbers post a year ago, it was intended to become a regular feature until we hit all 100 numbers (0-99…sorry, we’re not differentiating between 0 and 00). One thing I wanted to hold true to, though, was a random selection of the numbers. I don’t even totally know why—I just did.
Unfortunately, unlike our first selection, which had several players all viable choices as the best #81 of all time, research into our second number consistently came back with one player—the best #25 in NFL history appears to clearly have been Fred Biletnikhoff.
With 589 career receptions, 8,974 receiving yards, 76 touchdowns, a Super Bowl MVP (XI), six Pro Bowls (two of them AFL only), two first-team All-Pro selections, and Hall of Fame induction in 1988, he seems a cut clear choice.
Given the anti-climactic nature of the selection, we sat on it…for a year.
We’ve reached the dog days of the NFL–I consider myself a pretty big fan of the NFL, and even I can’t get that jazzed up about OTA’s. And it’s not just because my team went 3-13 last year–seriously, if you get excited about OTA’s, you might need professional counseling. Or you might be a Packer fan.
While there’s some great debate going on in our annual Hall of Fame thread, we’ve decided to fill the dead space with a series of posts that has been kicking around in my head for some time, and recently came back to the front of my brain when I heard a local radio host discussing the uniform number choice of a highly touted rookie (in this case it was hockey, but that doesn’t matter).
A few years back I bought a book that discusses, across all professional sports, who the best players to wear each number was. Of course, some of the numbers skew towards football (50-98, where fewer athletes in other sports wear numbers that high regularly), but I also thought some of the lower numbers tended to focus more on baseball/basketball than I would have expected.
So I figured we would start a series of posts discussing each number in the NFL (randomly) and who wore that number the best in the history of the league (we’ll gladly consider AFL, and even some CFL and USFL where applicable), and allow the fans to vote for who they think was the best.
The first number up is one that has had a significant tradition of star players: #81
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