Count me disappointed about this.  I liked it, and I like that it was unique.  If they're not going to be on the field, I hope they put up a ring of honor or something at least.  This feels like another over-compensation to burn to the ground the Brandon/Hoke era, much like Brandon/Hoke did to the RR era.  I would prefer a more nuanced approch, but whatever.   Just win games.

Freaked me out seeing the "today (Wendesday, July 28)". I would have missed a meeting and been in some trouble. Woof.

but for them to wear it for the rest of their career is dumb imo. Let the players wear their own numbers. I didn't want to see Devin wearing 98 for the rest of his career.

Loved the idea, but the execution was clumsy, and I'm not sure how they would've fixed that. Maybe making it a Senior Year Only thing, but then still questions about kids who leave early if they're the best player are less deserving yadda yadda...etc.

All the stuff we love to discuss outside of football season.

I'm glad they'll be having an official ceremony to re-retire the #s at least.

I thought the whole point being the legend jerseys was that the honored players and their families wanted to see the numbers out there again. Retiring them send like a step in the wrong direction.

Hopefully the retirement ceremony will induced some sort of memorial for the numbers in the stadium. They were no where before, and no one but the die-hardest of the die-hards knew we had retired numbers, let alone what they were.

Good riddance. I always saw this as yet another stupid Brandon gimmick. Putting retired jersey numbers back into circulation defeats the purpose of retiring them to begin with. 

Always thought this should be a Homecoming thing.  Honor the players of the past by having their numbers out on the field again for one home game per season.

Gives the players a chance to still have their own identity and make a name for themselves, possibly becoming a legend jersey down the road.

It was impossible to avoid clumsy execution.  The bottom line is that legends jerseys required changing people's numbers.  How was the next great player supposed to associate his number with legendary status when, in all likelihood, he would be wearing someone else's legendary number by the time he graduated.  

I'm glad this is over and I can go back to assoiciating my favorite players with one number in perpetuity.  

but at the same time it took away the chance for current players to make a number there own. If someone else was say Charles Woodson type of player and wore number 98, would it diminish Harmon's standing with that number. We didn't end up having to be concerned with it as that level of talent didn't rise to the top during the legend years.

Overall, I think it's better to retire the numbers but I hope they do something to more prominently display the past greats.

Also, what are they going to do with Woodson's #2?  I thought the Legend's jersey kind of solved that, but I guess they're going to have to retire it at some point as well then.

I liked and still like the concept. The execution was poor: The numbers should have been reserved for players who were truly exceptional against the backdrop of the entire history of Michigan football, not just the best players on a 5-7 team. In other words, Gardner was a great kid, but he wasn't Tom Harmon and, I don't think, ever did anything to merit wearing #98.

It'd be nice if they could be displayed somewhere on the boxes, like in the giant area above the windows that is just plain blue right now.

I, like many, liked the idea, not the execution. I think that the number switching was annoying, the patches were too big, and all told it was a bit gimmicky. The main thing IMO was the lockers - the differently finished wood, etc. etc. drew too much attention and could have been difficult in a "team" setting.

That said, I would like if the numbers could stay in rotation. It's not like we don't all have our memories of player X in Jersey Y. Depending on when you went to school/started following Michigan Football lots of numbers mean different players in your brain. Is #77 Taylor Lewan? Jake Long? Etc. etc. To you who is #16? Is it Navarre? Shoelace? My point is, every number at Michigan carries weight. Yes, some more than others, but why not let the number itself carry weight? In the media notes for each game you could highlight the history of a jersey (Picture Musburger drawling "That tackle was made by Desmond Morgan, who's wearing Gerald Ford's old #48 jersey").

Small/no patches, take the lockers back to normal, cut the # switching and leave them in rotation while pumping the history through videos or media notes. Wouldn't that be a happy medium?

I like the idea of keeping a "retire-worthy" jersey in circulation for 25 years or so and then retire it permanently.  You might be able to get a kid interested in the school if they have the option of wearing #2 or #21.  I don't know if the appeal is there for any of the other numbers that are being retired. 

I never believed in bringing the numbers out of retirement in the first place.  They were retired for a reason - to honor the great accomplishments of the men who wore them.   Bringing them back didn't accomplish anything on the field - that's for sure - other than in maybe Devin's game against ND with Mark Harmon watching. 

To me the ideal way of handling this is the way we've honored Carter, whose jersey has been handed from one outstanding player to another until it's no longer clear just whose legend is being honored. No patch, no formal designation, just a tradition.

I don't see why the same couldn't be done with the others--special numbers, given to special players who are reminders of the player(s) that have worn the number before and who have the chance to add their own names to the tradition. Some of them would probably be vacant more often than not--98's don't come around too often.

fewer numbers should mean that the #1 is permanently back in the rotation