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Should the Patriots unretire some of their jersey numbers?


ICB

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A topic that has intrigued me the past few years is the jersey numbers that have been retired by the Patriots, with the majority of the currently retired numbers worn by players who in the long-run, will have had little impact on the history of this franchise once the Brady/Belichick era is over.

Obviously guys like Hannah and Tippett deserve it, but how about everyone else? Haynes was a HOF but not sure he played long enough here and was more known as a Raider. Should Kraft consider unretiring those numbers and letting more deserving players of the SB era in? Only Brady and maybe Gronk getting their jersey retired out of this ridiculous run we’ve had seems unfair.

Guys like Ty Law, Tedy Bruschi, Willie McGinest, Drew Bledsoe, Richard Seymour, Troy Brown seem far more deserving of this honor than the guys who came before then. We are a historic franchise now. I would be interested to see how many jersey numbers teams like the Steelers, Packers, Cowboys, Niners have of guys who have never won a championship.

 

 

 

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There arent all that many retired numbers:

 

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The following Patriots numbers are retired: 20 (Gino Cappelletti), 40 (Mike Haynes), 57 (Steve Nelson), 73 (John Hannah), 78 (Bruce Armstrong), 79 (Jim Lee Hunt) and 89 (Bob Dee).

How many is too many? I think 1 a decade should be the rate. Don't get me wrong, a lot of guys from the dynasty to today deserve recognition, but that is what the Hall is for. Retiring of a number should really be for a guy who defined an era of Patriots football. To me thats only Tom Brady. I do think all the guys you mentioned, many of whom already have been inducted, deserve Patriots HoF honors. But retiring of a number is for a guy who as an all time great at his position at the time and really defined Patriot football for their time. 

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6 hours ago, ICB said:

A topic that has intrigued me the past few years is the jersey numbers that have been retired by the Patriots, with the majority of the currently retired numbers worn by players who in the long-run, will have had little impact on the history of this franchise once the Brady/Belichick era is over.

Obviously guys like Hannah and Tippett deserve it, but how about everyone else? Haynes was a HOF but not sure he played long enough here and was more known as a Raider. Should Kraft consider unretiring those numbers and letting more deserving players of the SB era in? Only Brady and maybe Gronk getting their jersey retired out of this ridiculous run we’ve had seems unfair.

Guys like Ty Law, Tedy Bruschi, Willie McGinest, Drew Bledsoe, Richard Seymour, Troy Brown seem far more deserving of this honor than the guys who came before then. We are a historic franchise now. I would be interested to see how many jersey numbers teams like the Steelers, Packers, Cowboys, Niners have of guys who have never won a championship.

 

 

 

The Steelers only have 2 officially retired numbers; the Cowboys have none.

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I don't really agree with retiring numbers, for the most part. I like that Bruschi wore 54, and then passed it on to Hightower. Law and Revis wearing the same jersey feels right. Likewise Vrabel and Ninkovich. Numbers have little stories of their own, and it's nice when players add to the legacy of a particular one.

That said, I would retire Brady's number. Watching another Patriot wear 12 would just be too weird.

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On 2/8/2018 at 6:06 PM, Deadpulse said:

so much this. Brady is the only guys from the BB era I retire the number for

What about Vinatieri? I’d say he deserves it. All his hallmark moments are with us and he’s likely going down as the most prolific kicker of all time. 

I think only HOF’ers should get the homer 

Brady (will be a HOF’er)

Vinatieri (will join a very elite list of kickers in the HOF)

John Hannah (already in and the greatest Patriot pre the Brady era)

Mike Haynes (already in, if people can swallow his Raiders stint)

Andre Tippet (already in) 

After that.....

The only other guy I’d really consider is Ty Law if he can make the Hall. If he can, he’d be the the most important Patriots on the defensive end of the Super Bowl era. He was on the All Decade Team, 2 All Pro’s, a bunch of Pro Bowls. Spent 10 years here. 

Also realistically Gronkowski. He’s going down as either the greatest or a top 3 greatest TE of all time and as someone who revolutionized the position. 

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