List of NFL retired numbers

Teams in the National Football League (NFL) retire jersey numbers of players who either are considered by the team to have made significant contributions to that team's success, or who have experienced untimely deaths during their playing career. As with other leagues, once a team retires a player's jersey number, it never issues the number to any other player, unless the player or team explicitly allows it.

History
Since NFL teams began retiring numbers, 163 players have had their jersey number retired. The Chicago Bears and the New York Giants have the most retired numbers of the teams with 14 each.

While only one player, Reggie White, has had his number retired by two teams, Peyton Manning received an acknowledgment when the Denver Broncos re-retired the number 18, which is officially retired under the name of Frank Tripucka (Tripucka granted Manning a special exception to wear the number). Four teams, the Atlanta Falcons, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Las Vegas Raiders  traditionally do not retire jersey numbers. The New Orleans Saints did retire numbers, having done so for Jim Taylor and Doug Atkins, but under new ownership those numbers were unretired. Also without a retired jersey number are the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans, though these teams are less than 30 years old: in this regard, the Texans do not retire numbers but honor player jerseys instead.

The Buffalo Bills under Ralph Wilson also did not, with the exception of Jim Kelly, officially retire jersey numbers: this policy was reversed under Wilson's successor Terry Pegula.

Unlike Major League Baseball (which retired Jackie Robinson's number 42), the National Hockey League (which retired Wayne Gretzky's 99), and the National Basketball Association (which retired Bill Russell's 6), the NFL has never retired a jersey number league-wide in honor of anyone.

Number 00 is no longer allowed, but was not retired in honor of any particular player; rather, the NFL's positional numbering system, instituted in 1973, does not allocate a position for players wearing that number- the NFL allowed 00 in the past, with Jim Otto and Ken Burrough wearing it. The number can be, and rarely is, used in the preseason when no other numbers for a player's position are available.