Malik Nabers to wear No. 1 after Giants un-retire number of Hall of Famer Ray Flaherty

Malik Nabers will wear No. 1 with the New York Giants, despite that jersey number being retired longer than other in the NFL.

The Giants announced Wednesday that Nabers had received permission from the family of Hall of Famer Ray Flaherty to don a number that hadn’t been in use since 1935. The number was the first to be retired by any team in professional football history.

Nabers had previously worn No. 9 during training camp and preseason, but that number is also used by veteran kicker Graham Gano.

Usually, when you see a player pressing for a number that isn’t available, it’s usually a case of the player having worn it his entire lift or having a special connection to the number. That isn’t the case with Nabers, though, as he wore No. 8 in his college career at LSU and No. 13 while in high school.

Neither of those numbers were available for Nabers on the Giants though, as his quarterback Daniel Jones sports No. 8 while fellow wideout Jalin Hayatt has No. 13. In fact, the only numbers under 20 not already in use or retired by the Giants are No. 12 and No. 18.

With numbers in the 80s out of vogue for wide receivers, that apparently wouldn’t do.

Flaherty family didn’t instantly approve Malik Nabers’ number change

Nabers told the Giants’ website that after seeing his limited options, he didn’t want to pay a teammate for a number. So he approached Giants owner John Mara about a retired number:

“Everybody else’s number was really taken,” Nabers said. “I didn’t feel like buying somebody else’s number. I looked into retired jerseys and number one stood out. So, I asked John Mara about it. He was like, ‘We could give it a shot.’ So, we gave it a shot.”

Mara reportedly pushed back on the idea initially before deciding to approach the Flaherty family.

According to Flaherty’s son, Ray Flaherty Jr., it took a while to get the entire family on board:

“There were a few things,” Flaherty said. “Probably one of the most important is I kind of polled my family. I’ve got two sons and a…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-08-29 00:24:52

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