The 49ers currently have two players wearing number 5, quarterback Joshua Dobbs and punter Pressley Harvin. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. Is this something that is only allowed during preseason? Or is it always allowed as long as the players aren’t on the field at the same time? What are the rules?
AIUI, it’s permitted during preseason because the roster is 90 players during that time, in which case overlap of numbers can be almost impossible to prevent. When the roster is cut down to 53 players, then the overlap is not allowed anymore.
What @Velocity said. I remember seeing it in the past on the Packers, especially early in pre-season, when rosters are still large.
I would strongly suspect that, for pre-season games, there’s a rule that, if a team has two players with the same uniform number, they cannot both be on the field together during a play.
(Up until last year, the rules were that, during training camp and pre-season, there were several roster cut-down dates, with progressively smaller roster sizes, but as of 2023, there’s only one cut-down date, from 90 to 53 players; this year, that date is August 27th.)
Also, FWIW, the Niners signed Pressley a week and a half ago, because their punter for the last five seasons, Mitch Wishnowsky, is dealing with a sore knee, and was apparently the only punter they had in camp – thus, they needed a punter for pre-season games.
I expect that, unless the injury is serious, they’re only keeping Pressley around until Wishnowsky comes back (i.e., Pressley isn’t being seriously considered for the job long-term). Hence, they probably aren’t too worried about the uniform number for the regular season.
Thanks to both of you for the information!
In college football, the team rosters can be very large, so some numbers are used by two players. I have seen cases where the two players with the same number end up on the field at the same time, and it is a penalty. It is probably illegal substitution or something similar. I think that I have only seen it on special team plays, like a punt or field goal.
NCAA Football Rule 1-4-2-b: “No two players of the same team shall participate in the same down wearing identical numbers.” The penalty is a 5-yard equipment violation.
Is there a rule that jersey numbers must be non-negative integers? Is there a maximum value?
In college, yes, and the maximum number is 99; in addition, no 2-digit number may begin with zero, including 00.
Can you have a 5 and a 5A?
Do the rules explicitly specify decimal digits?
Or whole numbers! 5.1!
“The starting quarterback will be John Smith, number Hashtag Ampersand.”
No to all of the above; none of those are allowed, either in the NFL or NCAA. Whole numbers/integers only, no letters, no decimals.
(Apologies if I was whooshed by either of you.)
In recent years, the NFL has loosened up their rules on which numbers can be worn by which positions, as well as once again allowing number 0 – though not 00, which was famously worn in the 1960s and 1970s by Jim Otto and Ken Burrough.
Here are the current rules:
Bummer, I would love to see someone use π or e as a jersey number.
Brian
Maybe MLB rules allow it? Except for the Washington Rationals.
Stunt batter wore 1/8:
Brian
Even so, it’s gotta suck to be told, “Welcome to the team kid. Here’s one of the quarterback’s spare uniforms you can wear while you’re here.”
Looking at the Niners’ roster, they don’t have any open, non-retired* uniform numbers between 0 and 19, so unless they were going to give Harvin a number outside of that range (which is now allowable for kickers and punters), he was going to get a duplicate. (They also list two guys currently wearing 4, and two wearing 7.)
*- The Niners have retired 8 (Steve Young), 12 (John Brodie), and 16 (Joe Montana).
The rules say just “minimal six-inch numbers.”
NCAA baseball rules also just say that the uniforms must have numbers.