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Why is Sammy Baugh the only former Redskin to have his jersey retired?


kgor93

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I was surprised when I found this out because I thought Theismann (7), Jurgensen (9), Green (28), Riggins (44), and Monk (81) were officially retired. Instead, they're unofficially retired. Adding to that 21 is unofficially unofficially retired. Is there any reason why aside from not wanting to potentially run out of numbers?

 

Still I just don't see those numbers being worn again ever unless rosters expand to 80+ players, which isn't likely.

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Because there will never be a bigger bad ass Redskin than Slingin' Sammy!! 

 

He is credited for making the forward pass an integral part of the offensive play in the NFL.

 

"By the time he retired, Baugh set 13 NFL records in three player positions: quarterback, punter, and defensive back.

Two of his records as quarterback still stand: most seasons leading the league in passing (six; tied with Steve Young) and most seasons leading the league with the lowest interception percentage (five).  He is also fourth in highest single-season completion percentage (70.33), most seasons leading the league in yards gained (four) and most seasons leading the league in completion percentage (seven). As a punter, Baugh retired with the NFL record for highest punting average in a career (45.1 yards), and is still second all-time (Shane Lechler 46.5 yards), and has the best (51.4 in 1940) and fourth best (48.7 in 1941) season marks.[2][10] He led the league in punting from 1940 through 1943.[11] As a defensive back, he was the first player in league history to intercept four passes in a game, and is the only player to lead the league in passing, punting, and interceptions in the same season."

 

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Well, I've never been fond of retiring numbers. I can get it on a rare occasion, and Sammy is one of them, but really doesn't matter much. That's just a number to me.

 

Some teams are quick to retire numbers, we're not, and that's good. I'm pretty fine with our situation looking at it right now. Some teams have retired 12 or 14 numbers... And some of those retired numbers are pretty headscratching (Phil Simms, seriously?). On the other hand, the Dallas Cowboys and the Oakland Raiders have never retired a number. And both those team have a huge history where they could remove some of them.

 

Three other teams haven't officially retire a number as of right now: Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens.

 

Full list is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Football_League_retired_numbers

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Because there will never be a bigger bad ass Redskin than Slingin' Sammy!! 

 

He is credited for making the forward pass an integral part of the offensive play in the NFL.

 

"By the time he retired, Baugh set 13 NFL records in three player positions: quarterback, punter, and defensive back.

Two of his records as quarterback still stand: most seasons leading the league in passing (six; tied with Steve Young) and most seasons leading the league with the lowest interception percentage (five).  He is also fourth in highest single-season completion percentage (70.33), most seasons leading the league in yards gained (four) and most seasons leading the league in completion percentage (seven). As a punter, Baugh retired with the NFL record for highest punting average in a career (45.1 yards), and is still second all-time (Shane Lechler 46.5 yards), and has the best (51.4 in 1940) and fourth best (48.7 in 1941) season marks.[2][10] He led the league in punting from 1940 through 1943.[11] As a defensive back, he was the first player in league history to intercept four passes in a game, and is the only player to lead the league in passing, punting, and interceptions in the same season."

 

 

And, if I am not mistaken, he was a first ballet HOF inductee the first year that the HOF ballot took place (1963).

 

Arguably the BEST football player of his era and the BEST Redskin ever!

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Because he's, by far, the greatest and most important Redskins to suit up, from a talent and development standpoint. I can't remember who said it (maybe the late Steve Sabol, who is probably a bigger fan of Baugh than we are) but Baugh's bust in the HOF is like having Joe Montana, Ray Guy, and Ronny Lott's heads on one set of shoulder.

 

You all already know the numbers and the accomplishments - 4 TDs and 4 picks in one game, leading the league in punting, passing, and interceptions in one season, leading the team to its first two NFL titles, etc..

 

I know there's a lot of talk about this player and that player being the greatest of all time, but Baugh is about as close as we can come to an "objective" answer to a subjective question.

 

Having said that, I think we should add a few more numbers to the retired list - 9, 43, 44, 49, and 81 certainly come to mind - especially since 9, 43, and 49 may not have too much time left with us, sad to say.

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I like the idea that the Redskins have only retired a players number that was arguably the best player the NFL ever produced. I wouldn't be averse to additional numbers retired but I'd want it for an unusually good player that the entire NFL looked on as among the top 2-3 players at his position during his era. Era being key you probably have to look at a period of 20 years. Only player other than Baugh that could meet that is probably Darrel Green.

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I like the idea of only having one retired jersey. The honor goes to the best player the Redskins have ever produced and sets a standard for all others to measure themselves against.

Sammy Baugh is far and away the best player to ever rock the burgundy and gold, and he deserves to be recognized as such by being the only one whose number can't get used.

Only other one I'd consider is maybe 21 for Taylor just because of his emotional impact to fans and the circumstances of his time here.

Retire Baugh for everything he did.

Retire Taylor for everything he could have done.

Just my 2 cents.

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I don't mean to play grammar police, but when you say someone is "arguably" the greatest, you are saying there is argument, no matter how weak, otherwise. Inarguably the greatest means there's no room for argument.

i think you can argue other people are goats but sammy baugh should be in the conversation by those that know. hes basically imo babe ruth of football. there were better hitters and pitchers but like baugh, no one else comes to mind who was as complete in offense defense and special teams and had as huge an impact on the game.

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I don't mean to play grammar police, but when you say someone is "arguably" the greatest, you are saying there is argument, no matter how weak, otherwise.  Inarguably the greatest means there's no room for argument.

I think we all understand the difference. There are other contenders and we are saying Baugh is in the argument. Inarguably means there are no other contenders and that just isn't accurate.

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33 is currently retired and cannot be worn- I'm good with that.

21 is currently not issued- I'm good with that for 2 more years, but once the 10th anniversary of Sean's death is over, I'm OK with moving on with someone wearing it. 21 has been worn by many players and some for longer than Sean.

7, 9, 28, 42, 43, 44, 49, 65, 81 (I may have missed one, let me know) are currently not issued- I'm OK with letting current players wear these numbers. Most of these guys are already in our ROF or HOF. If we have another great player on one of our current rosters, my policy would be 10 years. Not issued for 10 years, which gives us time to put him on the ROF or he goes into the HOF.

Concerning the Wheurful and Matthews thing. I think it was ridiculous. Can anyone truly believe that 30 or 40 years later, Wheurful or Matthews would ever be confused for Theismann and Jurgenson? I like what Dallass does. Put them in the ROF and reissue the number after so many years. You only get 99 numbers and when a team has a history as long as ours, you eventually run out of numbers.

Since some of you get bent out of shape over the numbers 7 and 9, why no outrage for someone wearing 3? 72? 71? 83? 84? Will 47 be in the conversation soon? I just think it's a whole lot of something over nothing. I guess Niles Paul better turn in that 84. I think I see Gary Clark out there.

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