Numbers Game

Call me old school but I liked the good old days when position hockey players used to wear numbers 2-30 and the goalies wore 1 or 31. The 'strange' numbers were left to the truly special players like Gretzky and Lemieux. Through the years there were a few that dared to wear a 'special' number - Wilf Paiment of Leafs fame wore 99 for a season and there were a few that adopted similarly large numbers.

The year the Sens came into existence is when it all went haywire. Sylvan Turgeon, a mid level player decided to wear '67' for some awful reason (no it was not 1867 Canada's independence) and that opened the floodgates of idiotic numbers for the Sens. Only when the coach was fired and a new one was brought in did he bring the jersey numbers into check.

Hockey seems to be leading the charge in these out of control numbers - Eric Lindros (the self-deposed 'Next One') wore 88 as it was the only non-same double digit not taken at that point in time. Now all the new comers have silly numbers like 87, 71, 91, 85 and so on. I am glad that footballers and even basketballers haven't embraced this way of 'marketing' oneself.

The NFL has rules on what numbers players can wear. If a player wants to wear a number that does not meet the criteria - they need to make a formal application and get league approval to do so. I must admit I LOVE the Rugby method - players are assigned their numbers by position.