Number 5 in Your Programs?

Reader Trevor Whitlock sends us this tip:

the issuing of these 'uncirculated numbers' continued today. unfortunately, it looks like this is going to become common with the expanded rosters.

He also sent me a screencap. Check out the last sentence:

And sure enough, looking at the Packers' roster they've assigned Paul Hornung's #5 to Terrell Sinkfield.

Quick digression: an ad for Culver's? How did my Brooklyn-based browser pick that one up?

Although never technically retired, the number has been held out of circulation since the Golden Boy retired, with one notable exception; a one-year issuance to quarterback Don Majkowski in 1987. After that one season, the Majik Man requested a number change because, as he put it at the time:

People kept asking me how it feels to wear Paul Hornung's number. I kept hearing that, and I realized the impact Hornung had. I wanted to wear a number people could remember me for.

We'll see if Sinkfield feels this problem as keenly, if he even makes the 53-man roster. But now we have a second longtime "unofficially retired" number being issued this season, after undrafted free agent QB Matt Brown was given Curly Lambeau's #1 after 87-years on the sidelines.

Trevor's right that the increasing number of players will create these problems. It's ironic that they're being given to people who come in least likely to match the exploits of the previous wearer, but I wonder if that isn't by design: if Brown and Sinkfield make the team, perhaps the Packers will issue them the newly-freed number of one of their colleagues who didn't.

Also, two #7s? We'll see how long that lasts...