If you’ve ever watched a soccer game, seen a player wearing a number in the 40s, 50s or even higher, and thought, “he looks ridiculous”, you’re going to have a hard time with the NFL.
To start with, rosters are a lot bigger – 53 during the regular season, plus 7 or 8 practice squad members, and up to 90 in training camp – and all of them have to have a unique number, so you’ll see pretty much every number from 1 to 99 occupied at one time or another.
Things are a little easier in preseason when you can have two players with the same number, but they’re not allowed on the field at the same time, so any one number might be given to one player on offense and one on defense. If they both make the regular season roster, however, they would have to have a unique number.
You’ve probably noticed players who play in the same position mostly wear similar numbers, and there’s a good reason for that. Originally, there were no restrictions on the numbers players could wear, although the NFL informally used a system adopted from the college game where offensive backfield players would wear numbers between 10 and 49 and offensive linemen would wear numbers between 50 and 89.
Since players would play on both offense and defense in those days, they would wear the same number on both sides of the ball; thus, defensive backs would wear 10-49 and defensive linemen would wear 50-89.
The NFL’s merger with the All-America Football Conference in 1949 and then the AFL in 1969 – and as a result, players retaining the numbers they wore in their old leagues – led to a standardisation of the numbering scheme in 1973.
Quarterbacks, punters and kickers: 1-19
Running backs and defensive backs: 20-49
Centers: 50-79
Guards and offensive tackles: 60-79
Wide receivers: 10-19, 80-89
Tight ends and H-backs: 40-49, 80-89
Defensive linemen: 50-79, 90-99
Linebackers: 40-59, 90-99
Players’ numbers are usually determined by their primary positions when they enter the league, and they may keep their number if they change positions; Ty Montgomery of the Green Bay Packers, for example, wears number 88 as he entered the league as a wide receiver, but has continued to wear the same number after moving to running back.
Requiring linemen to wear numbers 50-79 aids officials with identifying ineligible receivers – on a typical play, an offensive lineman lines up as an ineligible receiver (covered up on the line of scrimmage), so if an untipped pass is caught by a player wearing a number in that range who has not reported in as eligible, the officials know to signal a penalty.
The custom of offensive linemen wearing numbers 50-79 is replicated in the college game, albeit more strictly, with centers required to wear 50-59, guards 60-69 and tackles 70-79. For other positions, numbering is far less strict, with offensive backs wearing numbers 1-49 and ends wearing 80-99, while defensive players may wear any number.