Categories
NFL General

From 00 to 99, the NFL’s all-time best by jersey number

Growing up, we were all about the numbers players sported on their jerseys. All you had to do was mention the digits and we instantly knew who you were talking about. Nowadays, not so much. What can we say; the passion for numbers has faded over the years. Still, we love sports and we love good debates and Yardbarker put together a list of the NFL’s best players to ever wear each number and it’s pretty interesting. So, who’s your favorite No. 42?

0. Wilber “Pete” Henry

00. Jim Otto

1. Jim Thorpe ~~~(He also worn #’s 3 & 21) so Warren Moon could also go here.

2. Charley Trippi

3. Bronko Nagurski ~~~ (if you put Warren MOON @ #1, JIM THORPE WOULD GO HERE)

4. Brett Farve

5. Paul Hornung

6. Benny Friedman

7. George “PAPA BEAR” Halas (He started it all for us); John Elway, if you don’t agree w/”PAPA BEAR”

8. Troy Aikman… Toss up with Steve Young, I went w/ the SB wins

9. Carson Palmer (today); Sonny Jergenson (Past)

10. Fran “THE MAN” Tarkenton

11. Norm Van Brocklin

12. Tom Brady (Smooth under pressure, SB wins, & Future HOF’er) Terry Bradshaw

13. Dan Marino (Tough call here no SB wins but a HOF’er) Don Maynard (my 2nd choice @ this #)

14. Y.A. Tittle

15. Bart Starr

16. Joe Montana however, George Blanda (Played 2 positions, {QB & K} & had the record for several years for most points scored in NFL history)

17. Don Meredith

18. Payton Manning but coin flip for Charlie Joiner as a close 2nd, but now that Randy Moss wear this #, would you guys in the Yard vote him over Payton? I don’t think so. You?

19. Johnny Unitas

20. Barry Sanders, Brian Dawkins or Ed Reed

21. LT2 (SD RB)

22. Emmitt Smith over Paul Krause & Roger Wehrli

23. Devin Hester James Lofton

24. Lenny Moore Champ Bailey

25. Fred Bilentnikoff

26. Herb Adderley over Rod Woodson

27. Ken Houston

28. Darrell Green

29. Eric Dickerson

30. Bill Willis

31. Jim Taylor

32. Jim Brown

33. Sammy Baugh over Tony Dorsett (Sorry Dallas Fans)

34. Walter “SWEETNESS” Payton over Earl Campbell

35. Pete Pihos

36. Brian Westbrook Jerome Bettis

37. Doak Walker

38. Mack Strong

39. Larry Csonka

40. Gale Sayers

41. Terrence Newman

42. ***THIS WAS {1} OF THE TOUGHEST #’s TO PICK FOR ME*** Paul Warfield, Ronnie Lott, Charlie Taylor & Sid Luckman…I’ll go CHARLIE TAYLOR

43. Troy Polamalu

44. John Riggins

45. T.J. Duckett Ladell Betts Emlen Tunnell (HOF’er) (this is a hard # to come up with the BEST EVER to Wear #45) Little Help here BARKERS..

46. Ladell Betts

47. Mel Blount

48. Justin Snow

49. Tony Richardson

50. Mike “WIDE EYED” Singletary

51. Dick Butcus

52. Mike Webster over Ray Lewis

53. Keith Bulluck over Harry Carson

54. Randy White over Brian Urlacher

55. Lance Briggs

56. LT (NYG LB) over Shawne Merriman

57. Dwight Stephenson

58. Jack Lambert

59. Jack Ham

60. Chuck Bednarik

61. Bill George

62. Jim Langer

63. Gene Upshaw over Willie Lanier

64. Dave Wilcox

65. Tom Mack over Elvin Bethea

66. Ray Nitschke in a close one over Larry Little & today’s Alan Faneca

67. ***MY SURPRISE PICK*** Tony Ugoh (if he keeps college #), I can’t think of any other that wore #67, can the yard help here?

68. Joe Delamielleure

69. John Runyan

70. Rayfield Wright over Art Donovan & Sam Huff

71. Walter Jones over Fred Dean

72. Dan Dierdorf

73. Ron Yary over John Hannah

74. Merlin Olsen over Ron Mix

75. Joe Green over Deacon Jones

76. Steve Hutchinson

77. Red Grange

78. Anthony Munoz over Jackie Slater & Art Shell oh and Bobby Bell

79. Bob St. Clair

80. Jerry Rice Steve Largent James Lofton Kellen Winslow, Cris Cater (all he did was catch touchdowns)

81. Dick “NIGHT TRAIN ” Lane over Doug Atkins and Randy Moss (he could be here at 81, 84 or 18..where does the yard put him) & Terrel Owens (TO)

82. Ozzie Newsome

83. Ted Hendricks

84. Randy Moss before he went to #18 (oh no, now who do you pick #18 if you don’t put randy here)

85. Jack Youngblood

86. Dante Lavelli over Buck Buchanan

87. Dave Casper over Willie Davis

88. John Mackey Marvin Harrison Alan Page Michael Irvin

89. Gino Marchetti over Mike Ditka

90. Julius Peppers

91. Tommie Harris

92. Reggie “Minister of Defense” White

93. Dwight Freeny

94. DeMarcus Ware

95. Shawn Phillips

96. Adalius Thomas

97. Patrick Kerney

98. John Henderson

99. Dan Hampton Jason Taylor Jerome Brown

Wondering why some of this looks familiar? Well, back in January, the Yard put out a similar list involving current NFL players. Equally interesting and debatable because there has just got to be a better No. 35 out there than Selvin Young.

Links:

[Yardbarker.com]: LIST: BEST Players to ever wear the number…
[Yardbarker.com]: The Best NFL Players by Number

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *