Enormous, earth-shattering NFL news broke Wednesday: the league is loosening its jersey number rules.
Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer reported the news Wednesday, signaling a new era of jersey numbers for the league's players. Most importantly, single-digit numbers are no longer reserved for quarterbacks and kickers.
Here's a quick rundown of the changes:
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- RBs, TEs, and WRs can now wear 1 through 49 and 80 through 89
- DB can now wear 1 through 49
- LBs can now wear 1 through 59 and 90 through 99
- All OL can now wear 50 through 79
I have a feeling the single-digit numbers will be very, very popular among star position players. The No. 1 jersey is suddenly going to be a hot commodity. (Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts snatched it up earlier this offseason, before the changes went into effect. Very smart.)
I don't think we'll see the emergence of something like the No. 10 jersey in soccer, traditionally worn by the team's best attacker, but maybe we will!
I do think we’ll see some prominent Eagles take advantage of the rules.
NFL
Perhaps Darius Slay wears his college number, No. 9 (if he's allowed to take on Nick Foles' old number). Maybe Miles Sanders throws it back to high school and wears No. 4. And I might be thinking too far ahead, but if the Eagles land Devonta Smith in next week's draft, he could choose No. 6.
It also feels like the league could've gone a step further and let players wear whatever number they want - seriously, who cares? - but this is a fun step that'll engage fans because, like it or not, we care about jersey numbers.
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