Inside Phil Simms's deliberations on whether to allow Abdul Carter to wear No. 11

NBC Sports

05-05-2025

It happened quickly on Friday. On Monday morning, the whole story emerged.
Starting with an appearance on FanDuel TV, former Giants quarterback Phil Simms opened the door on possibly allowing his retired number (11) to be worn by Carter, who had previously been spurned in his effort to wear Lawrence Taylor's retired No. 56. Carter immediately mobilized, both to publicly accept the implicit offer — and to privately commence the effort to get in touch with Simms for the purposes of making a formal request.
Just when it appeared that Simms, who separately heard from G.M. Joe Schoen on the issue, would agree to let Carter wear the number, Simms's family intervened. Specifically, his wife and his daughter made the push to change Phil's mind.
Phil's son, Chris, told the story on Monday's PFT Live. The video is attached to this post.
Bottom line? While Phil said he was 'outvoted' by his family, it sounds more like it was a veto.
It all leads back to the broader philosophical questions related to the retirement of numbers.
Typically, the issue arises when an established NFL player who has worn a number with one team goes to another team. For example, Frank Tripucka's retired No. 18 was unretired for Peyton Manning in 2012, when he signed with the Broncos after wearing No. 18 for more than a decade with the Colts. When J.J. Watt signed with the Cardinals after wearing No. 99 for the Texans, Marshall Goldberg's daughter provided her blessing for Goldberg's retired number to be used.
Then there was the story of how Steve Largent's No. 80 came to be worn by Jerry Rice with the Seahawks. Said Largent after the fact, the team's General Manager at the time (Bob Ferguson) 'kind of conned both of us.'
It doesn't always go that way. When Aaron Rodgers went to the Jets, Joe Namath was willing to let him wear No. 12. To his credit, Rodgers said no.
More recently, teams have been dusting off retired jerseys for rookies. Last year, the Giants gave Ray Flaherty's retired No. 1 to receiver Malik Nabers. This year, the Titans issued Warren Moon's retired No. 1 to Cam Ward. (Of course, Moon never played for the Titans.)
The better approach, since there are only so many numbers that 53 (and, in the preseason, up to 90) players can wear, would be to not retire numbers at all. However, if a team is going to retire numbers, the team should honor the obvious terms of the honor.
If a number is retired, it's retired. And it's for the team to enforce that. Especially since most players for whom a number has been retired will choose to be perceived as magnanimous when asked to allow a number to be re-used.
For the new player — especially a rookie — why wouldn't he want to pick a number that potentially could be retired for him? That's where it becomes very awkward. If the player has a career that merits the ultimate honor of jersey retirement, what happens when he retires? Is a second name added to it?
Apparently, it can be. The Giants initially retired No. 14 for Ward Cuff. They unretired it for Y.A. Tittle in 1961. Now, the number is officially retired for both players. (Maybe Carter should ask for that one next.)
That's ultimately what could have happened to Simms. If it had been unretired for Carter and if Carter ends up having a Hall of Fame career with the Giants, No. 11 could have ultimately been retired for both of them. Which necessarily undermines the distinction given to Simms.
Even though it took a strong nudge from his wife and daughter, Simms did the right thing. Moving forward, all teams with retired numbers shouldn't put the players for whom numbers have been retired in that position, especially for rookies.
It's for the team to say that retired numbers won't be unretired. Otherwise, why even bother to retire jersey numbers at all?