Does his number deserved to be retired? I was too young at the time he played so I don’t know or can’t have an opinion. I became a fan in 79 so I understand the history and all but didn’t see Nick play.
You could argue that I should look at the stats but football was not built that way. You can do that with baseball because it’s stat driven.
Was Nick himself a legendary player? Or was he just a very good player who benefitted from playing on a great team? And what I mean is legendary on the field, not taking his off the field work into account.
I’m a fan of retiring numbers IF the player was a legendary player like Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Lawrence Taylor or in our case Dan Marino. I hate when teams start retiring numbers at will just so they can kick start their own history. I feel the same way about the Hall of Fames. Too many very good players make it into the Hall, I think you need to be a legendary player. If you have to think about a player whether he is worthy or not then I think No.
So I’m curious, do you guys who are old enough consider Nick a legendary player on the field? I was always curious about this question as I am curious about other players who played on those early Dolphin years.
