Rookie Pass Rusher’s Jersey Number Hunt Stalls with Giants Legends
Picking out a jersey number is one of the most important things to do for any player who is going to be playing a professional sport, all the way down to a high school sport. The decision is crucial, and usually whatever that player picks always has a background history to it. For this New York Giants rookie, Abdul Carter, the young linebacker is running into many issues trying to figure out what to do with his jersey number for this coming season. He has a lot of time to decide, but not much time is left.
When Carter played at Penn State in college, his jersey number was 11. This was the number that was used by him the entire time he was there. So when Carter entered the draft and went to the Giants, he wanted to choose the number he played with. However, the 21-year-old couldn’t because it had been retired by the Giants, and a former Giants player who used it during his days on the field. That was none other than former Giants quarterback Phil Simms. This was Carter's second plan. Simms had no issues unretiring the number that had been retired since 1994, it was the Simms family that did not want to unretire it for Carter to use it.
The original number that this football defensive end had wanted was number 56, the number that former Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor had used during his days with the Giants. It was a hard no from him, and he did not wish to unretire the number. Carter thought it would be cool since they were both drafted at the number three pick in their draft years. Taylor felt it would be best if Carter made his mark by choosing his own number to use for the Giants, even if he was a double zero or something else. It’s been hard for him. He has even joked about not having a number at all and just playing with his name on the back. There are options that Carter has, though. He can choose his own of what he would like to use.
The second option is that the Giants may also be able to help him decide on what number to use. They may also choose a different number to unretire for him. They did this last season when they allowed Malik Nabers to wear number one, which was already retired. It was previously worn by Ray Flaherty, one of the original players of the New York Giants, and it was one of the first numbers retired in all of professional football history. No one had used it for well over 90 years, and it was a huge deal when it was unretired. The Giants may decide to do the same for Carter.
Carter will find a number before the season starts. It will be one that fits perfectly for him. He just needs to put a little bit more thought into it before he makes any decision. It would be a discussion for him to have with himself and maybe find out some of his teammates’ stories. It will be interesting before the season starts to learn about what number he will be wearing.
