Number 84? “It’s Hard to Swag That”

Thanks to OZ’s Jake Wax for sharing this article about the psychology of how receivers select their uniform numbers in the NFL.

The league used to have a rule that all receivers must have uniform numbers between 80 and 89. However, one player challenged this rule and the league let him get away with it – non only that, they eventually changed the rule so that all receivers could wear numbers between 10 and 19.

Receivers are among the fastest players on the field and many of them are tall and lean. So, now, the majority of young receivers choose numbers between 10 and 19 because it makes them look faster, slimmer, and more agile and therefore they believe it helps them establish their personal brand.  As one receiver states, “Eighty numbers just don’t look good to me. It’s hard for you to swag that. A few people can swag it out but with my body type a teen number looks better.”

The article contains insight from a cognitive neuroscientist at UCLA, who agrees that, although there is no research on it, the shape of the number “1” vs. the number “8” would suggest that the players’ perception is probably correct, that they probably do look faster and quicker wearing number 11 or 13 rather than 83 or 88.

The article goes on to speculate how numbers can affect people who play other positions, as well. Quarterbacks used to traditionally wear numbers between 10 and 19, but in recent years single-digit numbers have become popular for that position because (ironically, given the impact of numbers between 10 and 19 on receivers) double-digit numbers are believed to suggest that a quarterback is less athletic than if he is wearing a number between 1 and 9.

This reminds us somewhat of the “Bouba vs. Kiki” test and would make for a good Implicit Association Test by some aspiring grad student somewhere.