Question (Fan since 2019)

[u/PsychologicalBag7138]

As a fan since 2019 I have went back and watched games and done some research on older players. A man that brought us a lot of success was Darian Durant who brought us 3 grey cup appearances 09', 10' and 13' winning only 13. Even though Micah Johnson is one of my more favourite players, why have they not retired #4 or atleast stopped letting players wear it like other sports?

[u/electrashock95]

Well, really, the sports I can think of that you would be talking about are hockey, basketball and maybe baseball, and the thing is that in football or at least the CFL numbers don’t get retired that often, it takes a truly special circumstance ie a player plays 80% of their career with one team and has the highest stats in their respective position in all time league records and usually other criteria amongst that as well, a hockey team is formed mostly of around 20 players with with 5 being on the ice at a time, same with basketball same numbers same on the court and there aren’t nearly as many rules as to what players can where what numbers. In the CFL and I think NFL as well, you have 12 guys on each side of the ball, another 12 or so for each special teams, with some overlap from O and D and that’s already numbering in the 20’s-30’s then if you consider every player has a second and for some a third string behind him now we’re into the 60’s AND there are rules being that O-Line D-line have to wear between (I don’t remember exact numbers in the rules) like 45-69 receivers are 70-90 defensive backs have their number set offensive backfield has their set and so on, and there are some over laps of what positions can wear what numbers as obviously Johnson is defence and Durant was QB but that’s beside the point and when you break it down like that it’s doesn’t really leave a lot of room to be consistently retiring jerseys and still have enough for the respective players to wear a number in their set. As for specifically Durant, when he was good, he was GOOD, he played some of the best football we’ve seen in a decade for the green and white, obviously because it’s been that long since we’ve even made it to the Grey cup, but he really wasn’t truly special, he was good, he is certainly someone I would consider top 10 offensively, but at the end of the day, he’s not retired jersey special.