Malik Nabers will wear No. 1 with the New York Giants, despite that jersey number being retired longer than others in the NFL.
The Giants announced Wednesday that Nabers had received permission from the family of Hall of Famer Ray Flaherty to wear a number that had not been used 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 the preseason, but that number is also worn by veteran kicker Graham Gano.
Typically when you see a player pushing for a number that isn’t available, it’s usually because the player has worn it throughout the entire run or has a special connection to the number. That’s not the case with Nabers, however, as he wore No. 8 in his college career at LSU and No. 13 while in high school.
However, neither of those numbers were available to Nabers with the Giants, as his quarterback Daniel Jones has No. 8 while teammate Jalin Hayatt has No. 13. In fact, the only numbers under 20 that aren’t already in use or haven’t been retired by the Giants are No. 12 and No. 18.
Since 1980s numbers are no longer in style for wide receivers, that apparently wouldn’t be a good idea.
The Flaherty family did not immediately approve of Malik Nabers’ number change
Naberos He 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 to discuss a retired number:
“Everyone else had their number taken,” Nabers said. “I didn’t feel like buying someone else’s number. I looked at retired jerseys and the number one stood out. So, I asked John Mara about it. He said, ‘We could try it.’ So we tried it.”
Mara reportedly initially rejected the idea before deciding to approach the Flaherty family.
According to Flaherty’s son, Ray Flaherty Jr., it took a while to get the whole family on board:
“There were a few things,” Flaherty said. “Probably one of the biggest is that I polled my family. I have two sons and a daughter. And of course, that’s their grandfather. At first, my daughter wasn’t too keen on the idea. But she was the one who changed her mind. She finally said, ‘It might be lucky for him. That number one might be a good number for him.’ She agreed. We thought that would be the way to go.”
Flaherty played for the Giants from 1929 to 1935, winning the NFL championship in 1934. According to Giants lore, it was his idea for the team to wear sneakers after a night of freezing rain, and the traction helped them win what would become known as the “Sneaker Game.”
He died in 1994, at the age of 90.
This isn’t the first time the Giants have unretired a number, as Hall of Famer YA Tittle was allowed to wear No. 14 after being traded to New York even though it had been retired by Ward Cuff in 1946.
The hype around Malik Nabers continues to grow
The Giants selected Nabers out of LSU with the sixth overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, and the hype surrounding him has only grown since.
Along with Marvin Harrison Jr. and Rome Odunze, Nabers was considered one of the top wide receiver prospects entering the draft in recent history. He was a unanimous All-American with 1,569 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior, and then impressed at scouting with a 4.35-second 40-yard dash speed.
Giants writers were effusively complimentary of Nabers’ performance in training camp, and he looked like a rising star in the preseason, too.
With Jones still under center for the Giants, it’s hard to see the team making the offensive leap it needs to become a serious contender, but no one can say they didn’t give the quarterback a weapon.
