Malik Nabers will wear the number 1 jersey for the New York Giants, even though this jersey number has been out of use for 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. It was the first number not used by a team in professional football history.
Nabers had previously worn number 9 during training camp and preseason, but that number is also used by veteran kicker Graham Gano.
When a player pushes for a number that is unavailable, it is usually because the player has worn it throughout his training or has a special connection to the number. However, that is not the case with Nabers, as he wore No. 8 during his college career at LSU and No. 13 during high school.
However, none of those numbers were available to Nabers with the Giants, as his quarterback Daniel Jones wears No. 8, while fellow wide receiver Jalin Hayatt wears No. 13. In fact, the only numbers under 20 that have not yet been used or retired by the Giants are No. 12 and No. 18.
Since numbers in the 80s are no longer in fashion for wide receivers, that obviously wouldn’t be possible.
The Flaherty family did not immediately agree to Malik Nabers’ number change
Nabers said on the Giants’ website that after seeing his limited options, he didn’t want to pay a teammate money for a number, so he approached Giants owner John Mara about a number that was no longer in use:
“Everyone else’s number was already taken,” Nabers said. “I didn’t feel like buying someone else’s number. I looked at discarded jerseys and 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 contact the Flaherty family.
According to Flaherty’s son Ray Flaherty Jr., it took a while for the whole family to get on board:
“There were a couple of things,” Flaherty said. “Probably one of the most important is that I consulted my family. I have two sons and a daughter. And of course, this is her grandfather. At first, my daughter wasn’t so keen on it. And she was the one who was able to bring herself to do it. Finally, she said, ‘This might bring him luck. Number one might be a good number for him.’ She relented. We thought that was the right thing to do.”
Flaherty played for the Giants from 1929 to 1935, winning the 1934 NFL championship game. Legend has it that it was his idea for the team to wear sneakers after a night of freezing rain, the traction of which helped them win what became known as the “Sneakers Game.”
He died in 1994 at the age of 90.
This is not the first time the Giants have retired a number. Hall of Famer YA Tittle was allowed to wear number 14 after his trade to New York, even though it was retired in 1946 for Ward Cuff.
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 in the months since, the hype surrounding him has only grown.
Along with Marvin Harrison Jr. and Rome Odunze, Nabers was considered one of the most promising wide receivers to enter the draft in recent history. In his junior year, he was unanimously selected as an All-American, with 1,569 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns. At the Scouting Combine, he impressed with a 4.35-second 40-yard dash time.
The Giants’ journalists praised Nabers’ performance in training camp effusively, and he also seemed to be a rising star in the preseason.
With Jones still playing quarterback for the Giants, it’s hard to imagine the team making the leap forward on offense needed to become a serious contender, but it can’t be said that they haven’t given the passer a weapon, either.