Well, heck. A couple days after my beautiful post about my heroes retiring from sports and all that, Junior Seau decides he doesn't really want to retire. New England (not my fave team, and a repository for former San Diego players) needed a linebacker, and by golly Seau can still play, so Junior is now a Patriot. Hm. I'll get over the distress of seeing Seau in another uniform, and I'm glad he'll still get to play.

But the uniform thing opened up a whole different problem. You see, Seau has always worn number 55. At USC, at SD, in Miami. But New England's number 55 used to belong to another great linebacker, Willie McGinest (who also wore 55 at USC, after Seau did), who signed as a free agent with Cleveland. Seau and McGinest know each other, and Junior supposedly was going to call Willie to see if it was OK for him to wear 55. Apparently, McGinest wasn't thrilled, but OK'd the deal.

In football, you can't really retire a jersey number. Football teams are big--you've got 45 guys each season--as opposed to smaller team sports like hockey, baseball, and basketball. Also, jersey numbers in football are related (for the most part) to the position that the players occupy. Kickers generally get the low numbers (maybe it makes a kicker feel better to be Number 1!), quarterbacks are next, then running backs, the defensive backs, then receivers, etc. There are always exceptions to this pattern, but most players follow the tradition. That means there is a limited number of jerseys available for most players. And since teams generally have at least two players for each position (you've got to have a back-up in a physical sport like football), that cuts the available numbers down even more.

To complicate matters further, players in numbered sports get very attached to their jersey numbers as part of their identities. Some players throw fits if they don't get their numbers when they go to a new team, and more than one rookie or young player has been bumped out of a number by a veteran. A sign of class is how that younger player deals with it. (Ray Bourque used to play hockey on the Boston Bruins team as number 7, but when Boston decided to retire number 7 as a tribute to the great Phil Esposito, Bourque took the news with grace and dignity, traded for number 77, and wore it until his retirement--at which point both Boston and the Colorado Avalanche retired HIS jersey number.)

In basketball, Michael Jordan's number, 23, was retired not only by his own team, but by several others as well, in deference to many people's belief that he was the greatest player to play the game. In hockey, THE ENTIRE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE retired number 99 because of Wayne Gretsky, who still holds close to 60 records in the NHL's record book.

But the greatest football player ever is much harder to determine, since a player can be great at his position, but there are so many positions. Who is to say that the greatest quarterback is really better than the greatest receiver? Or runningback? Or kicker? (Well, that one's pretty obvious, I guess...just kidding, kickers!) And the greatness of a football player is often dependent on the greatness of the players around that person. Where would Joe Montana have been if he hadn't had Jerry Rice to catch his passes? (Answer: Kansas City! hahahahaha!) There is no Wayne Gretsky in football, or Michael Jordan. (And even some sports fans would argue that Jordan wouldn't have been as great without Scottie Pippen, and Gretsky got some help from time to time from Mark Messier.)

The case with Seau and McGinest is difficult too, since both have legitimate claims to the number. Seau is the veteran, and did have 55 before McGinest did, even in college. But McGinest had the number first at New England, and won three Super Bowls with them.

So who will get the number? Probably Seau, since football players just can't lay claim to numbers like in other sports. If McGinest is a class act, he'll let Seau have it with grace, and let it go. And if he puts up a fuss, Seau can be the dignified one, and select a different number. They'll get over it.

The bigger question is, will my Chargers finally go back to the Super Bowl (and not get their butts kicked this time)? Only the season will tell...