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Well that didn't take very long.
The Dallas Cowboys are well known for many reasons, as are their tendencies and traditions. One such is that, although they do not believe in retiring anyone's jersey number, no matter how pivotal and crucial they are to franchise history. What they do instead is more of a soft retirement. The number won't hang in the rafters, but the number will simply fall out of rotation. Troy Aikman's "8", Emmitt Smith's "22", Roger Staubach's "12"... those numbers haven't been worn since the player retired.
On the flip side, jersey No. 88 is handed down from franchise-level receiver to receiver. First made famous by Drew Pearson, Michael Irvin and now CeeDee Lamb have been stratosphere trajectory holders of the flame. We'll ignore the Antonio Bryant era where Jerry Jones was selling snake oil like no one's business. Outside of that tradition, soft retirement is how the franchise pays homage to their greats.
The current generation of Cowboys may or may not have candidates for such soft retirement honors, but if anyone does, Tyron Smith and Zack Martin would be prime contenders. Smith, who on Wednesday joined Martin as 2025 retirees, has honored with a contract and cermony on Wednesday so he could retire a Cowboy. But less than 24 hours later, his No. 77 was assigned to a journeyman lineman.
When Smith left the club in free agency in 2024, his number sat unassigned for the season. Charles, who sat out all of 2024 himself, was signed in the last month as the club looks to boost their depth prior to the draft. And while there's hope Charles could turn into something, he's a long ways away from being a next-in-line signing like Lamb was as a draft pick.
The truth is, numbers assigned in the spring mean very little. The team carries 90 players on their offseason roster and folks double-up on numbers all of the time. Until Charles suits up for a regular season game in No. 77, this may just be a minor faux pas. But, nobody has worn 8,12 or 22 in preseason games, so... there is some level of lack of thought.
As such, the announcement had many fans, and a handful of players, disgusted the club turned around so quickly after all of the friendly words spewed in Smith's direction just a day earlier. Here's some of the better Twitter reactions to the announcement, including Smith's former teammate Jourdan Lewis. The rest can be seen in the replies and quote tweets to the original.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Reaction: Cowboys re-assign No. 77 of Tyron Smith day after retirement
Continue reading...
The Dallas Cowboys are well known for many reasons, as are their tendencies and traditions. One such is that, although they do not believe in retiring anyone's jersey number, no matter how pivotal and crucial they are to franchise history. What they do instead is more of a soft retirement. The number won't hang in the rafters, but the number will simply fall out of rotation. Troy Aikman's "8", Emmitt Smith's "22", Roger Staubach's "12"... those numbers haven't been worn since the player retired.
On the flip side, jersey No. 88 is handed down from franchise-level receiver to receiver. First made famous by Drew Pearson, Michael Irvin and now CeeDee Lamb have been stratosphere trajectory holders of the flame. We'll ignore the Antonio Bryant era where Jerry Jones was selling snake oil like no one's business. Outside of that tradition, soft retirement is how the franchise pays homage to their greats.
The current generation of Cowboys may or may not have candidates for such soft retirement honors, but if anyone does, Tyron Smith and Zack Martin would be prime contenders. Smith, who on Wednesday joined Martin as 2025 retirees, has honored with a contract and cermony on Wednesday so he could retire a Cowboy. But less than 24 hours later, his No. 77 was assigned to a journeyman lineman.
When Smith left the club in free agency in 2024, his number sat unassigned for the season. Charles, who sat out all of 2024 himself, was signed in the last month as the club looks to boost their depth prior to the draft. And while there's hope Charles could turn into something, he's a long ways away from being a next-in-line signing like Lamb was as a draft pick.
The truth is, numbers assigned in the spring mean very little. The team carries 90 players on their offseason roster and folks double-up on numbers all of the time. Until Charles suits up for a regular season game in No. 77, this may just be a minor faux pas. But, nobody has worn 8,12 or 22 in preseason games, so... there is some level of lack of thought.
As such, the announcement had many fans, and a handful of players, disgusted the club turned around so quickly after all of the friendly words spewed in Smith's direction just a day earlier. Here's some of the better Twitter reactions to the announcement, including Smith's former teammate Jourdan Lewis. The rest can be seen in the replies and quote tweets to the original.
️ (@Gemi_Ni_) This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Reaction: Cowboys re-assign No. 77 of Tyron Smith day after retirement
Continue reading...
