Gillette 'Ring of Fame' makes sense, not money.

Foxboro's Tom Nalen has his name enshrined in the Denver Broncos' Ring of Fame.

Boston Globe national NFL writer Ben Volin recently penned a Sunday notes column in which he suggested that the Patriots should un-retire most of their retired numbers and put them back into circulation, for one simple reason -- because they have so many retired numbers, there almost aren't enough numerals left at some positions to satisfy the NFL's numbering convention.

As is usually the case, Ben took some heat for this column. Some Globe readers seemingly have nothing better to do than criticize every word he writes because he didn't grow up in Charlestown and watch his first NFL game at Nickerson Field or Fenway Park. As I learned over almost a half-century of professional sportswriting, you can't please everyone.

But Ben touched upon a topic that I've been harping about for a long time. There are too many numbers that have been retired in all U.S. professional sports for sketchy reasons, and the Patriots are right up there. They have officially retired eight numbers -- amazingly, the least of any of the four major Boston teams -- and one other number has not been issued since that player retired.

That may not sound like a lot, especially when there are 100 numbers available to every NFL team to fill out their 53-man rosters -- 0 through 99. But the NFL requires that players at various positions wear numbers in a specific range, although those requirements have been loosened a little in recent years to meet the growing challenge of number availability.

As I believe that triple-digit numbers or number-letter combinations belong only on Massachusetts low-number license plates, I do not want the NFL to consider more numerals on a football jersey. But limits have to be set to keep two digits as the standard.

Currently, these are the number-convention rules (courtesy of Wikipedia):

The Patriots' biggest problem is that they have five numbers in the 50-79 range that are not available, which puts a strain upon their numbering decisions, especially for tackles. There were just 30 numbers available for at least 22 to 25 available roster spots at the allowed positions, although the opening of the 0-49 range to linebackers mitigated that somewhat. 

Here are the Patriots' retired numbers:

** 12, QB Tom Brady, retired in 2024.

** 20, WR-K Gino Cappelletti, retired in 1971

** 40, CB Michael Haynes, retired in 1996

** 57, LB Steve Nelson, retired in 1988

** 73, OG John Hannah, retired in 1990

** 78, OT Bruce Armstrong, retired in 2001

** 79, DT Jim Lee Hunt, retired in 1971

** 89, DE Bob Dee, retired in 1968

In addition, the number 56 worn by linebacker Andre Tippett has not been issued to another player since his retirement in 1993, although it is not officially retired. 

Gino Cappelletti

Among those players with retired numbers are two in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Haynes (who played half of his 14-year career with the then-Los Angeles Raiders), and Hannah. There are 11 players with ties to the Patriots in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but just five that spent a significant amount of time with them: Tippett (2008), cornerback Ty Law (2019), DT Richard Seymour (2022), LB Nick Buoniconti (2001) and RB Curtis Martin (2012), none of whose numbers have been retired. And let's not forget about Randy Moss, Darrelle Revis or Junior Seau, either.

This is entirely separate from the members of the Patriots Hall of Fame, which has been selected by fan voting since 2007. Each year, a nominating committee consisting of current and former media members, former players and coaches and team personnel select three nominees, with the entrant selected after a month-long period of fan voting. A senior selection committee meets every four years and can add a player that has been retired for 25 years without going through the voting process, and in addition, team owner Robert Kraft has the option of adding individuals as "contributors" for having a significant impact upon the progress and development of the franchise. This year, wide receiver Julian Edelman won the fan vote and former coach Bill Parcells was inducted as a contributor.

While the 31 players inducted in the Patriots Hall of Fame do not have their numbers immediately retired (what a mess that would leave!), their names, positions and numbers are immortalized inside the Patriots Hall of Fame exhibition hall inside the stadium. But I've thought for a long time that the Patriots should make a larger and more visible commitment to their memories.

Many teams use the façades within their home stadiums to accomplish that for their honored former players. The one with which I'm most familiar, because it has local representation, is the one inside Empower Field at Mile High in Denver. As seen in the photo atop this missive, it extends around the full length of one of the highest façades inside the bowl, and each segment features the player's name, number, career duration and the helmet which he wore during his tenure (the Broncos, like the Patriots, have worn helmets with different team logos on them).

Denver's Tom Nalen.

Among those players is former Foxboro High and Boston College standout offensive lineman Tom Nalen, who was a two-time All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowl center for the Broncos from 1994 through 2008. With his two Super Bowl championships sending snaps to the waiting hands of John Elway, I'm still puzzled that he isn't in the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- although I hear there's a move afoot in Denver to promote his candidacy more aggressively. 

While the Patriots don't have a home-grown local like Nalen to celebrate, I'm sure their fans would love to look up inside Gillette Stadium and see Steve Grogan's name, or Tedy Bruschi's, Ty Law's, Rodney Harrison's, Julian Edelman's ... any of the players that led them through both the good times and bad to eventually put the Patriots firmly among pro football's elite franchises.

Yes, it would be great ... except for the fact that the stadium's façades are presently giant cash cows for the Kraft family.

Almost every inch of available space inside the stadium is covered with video boards that flash garish advertisements for almost every second of a game. As bright and brilliant as the LED panels will allow, they constantly pound away at their not-so-subliminal messages of car purchasing, shaving, investing or what have you. And it all brings more cash into the coffers of an ownership that has a current worth of about $11.1 billion, of which around $7.4 billion is directly attributable to the Patriots.

Is the top of the stadium all that's left without ads?

Robert Kraft and heir-apparent Jonathan are highly unlikely to remove any of the ads from what has become prime advertising space around the two elevated façades that ring most of the stadium. And I'm not enough of an architectural engineer to suggest which could be extended lower to create space for a permanent and illuminated Ring of Fame without creating sight-line issues. One possibility I see would be to create a new façade at or near the base of the structural steel that holds the stadium lights in place, but that's way up there. If you want a Ring of Fame, you want people to be able to see it without high-powered binoculars. 

And who knows? Maybe the whole thing can be sponsored by Dunkin' Donuts, to keep the bean-counters happy.

I'm sure a lot of these things have been discussed within the ivory towers of Patriot Place. I'm too far removed from my days on the beat (outside of my membership on the nominating committee) to be in the know about what's up over there beyond the movie schedule at the Showcase. But it's clear that as opposed to other NFL franchises like Cleveland, Chicago, Nashville, even Denver, where new stadiums are being proposed to replace those built or renovated at the turn of the century, the Krafts are committed to their Foxboro location and continue to upgrade it (including the new team offices and training complex currently under construction). Maybe somewhere within all that planning, someone in authority can suggest a better way to publicly honor the players and others that built an empire.

Back to the retired-numbers conundrum ... I'm afraid I would be pretty harsh.

I'd put all numbers back into circulation for current players except possibly three -- 12 (Brady, for obvious reasons), 73 (Hannah, the first fully-vested Patriot to earn Pro Football Football Hall of Fame status), and 20 (Cappelletti, who will always be the leading scorer in American Football League history, but also had a long and honored tenure as an assistant coach and broadcaster). 

Then, I would establish some firm and demanding statistical criteria for actual number retirement.

Adam Vinatieri? Nope.

First, I'd expect a player to have played at least two-thirds of his career with the Patriots. I originally thought it should be a whole career, but that would exclude Brady (87 percent), Rob Gronkowski (81.8), and Law and Seymour (both 67 percent), as well as Lee (80) and Haynes (50). Much as I am a fan of Adam Vinatieri, who should reach both the Patriots Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he played only 41.6 percent of his career with the Patriots, and thus I would not put No. 4 in the rafters, so to speak. 

Hannah, Cappelletti and Tippett are all 100 percenters, as are Grogan, Nelson, Armstrong, Hunt and several others among the 31 Patriots Hall of Fame members -- but not all of them are iconic enough to qualify on tenure alone, hence I'd establish additional steps.

Second, I'd establish a criteria for statistical qualification. I played around with some numbers and then came up with what I think is a reasonable suggestion -- a player should finish within the top 5 percent of all players in NFL history at his position at the time of his retirement. Using Yankee Stadium-sized ballpark figures for eligibility, I'd suggest that over at least 100 years of professional football, there have been maybe 12,000 linebackers that might have been full-time starters for most of their careers, and 5 percent of those would equal approximately 400. So if you can finish your career with top-400 status in some important statistical category, you'd be worth consideration for a retired number.

Third, I'd make Pro Football Hall of Fame status an almost certainty for number retirement status, and add emphasis for Super Bowl participation and top-tier awards such as Super Bowl or league MVP status and All-Pro berths. I'm not much of a fan of Pro Bowl berths, watered down as that has become.

I'd also make some room for extenuating circumstances, although not much. Basically, you'd have to cure cancer, negotiate Middle East peace or become a member of the Avengers or Justice League for it to make any difference. That's kind of how I felt about those who wanted to retire Tony Conigliaro's number with the Red Sox over the tragic circumstances that derailed his career. You retire a number for what a player did, not what you think he could have done -- no matter how heartbreaking.

And finally, I'd establish a high-level committee for each team, just a few members, to take all these criteria, number-crunch them and then come up with the final decision independent of any possible outside pressure. In case of unreconcilable conflict on those committees, the final decision would be left up to the Commissioner. This should not be an opportunity for an owner to capriciously add a player's number to the highest-possible level of honor just because of personal favoritism. That was done by two of the Patriots' four majority owners, and while it was done with good intentions, it did not accurately reflect the actual performance and contribution to football history of at least five of the eight former Patriots whose numbers were retired, in my opinion.

I don't have the facilities here to do all that number-crunching, but the NFL surely does, and it could provide the necessary assistance to those charged with the task. And I'd want the league and the teams to be transparent about the decisions, to prevent zealot fans from being able to dispute decisions for sentimental reasons without the teams having enough information on hand to dismiss those disputes.

Don't meet the criteria? The Patriots Hall of Fame is a worthy-enough honor, and even better if the names and numbers of those in it are displayed prominently within the stadium bowl.

Got any opinions? The email address is at the bottom of this column. Feel free to respond.

MARK FARINELLA has his number retired by the Patriots. He wore No. 12 for the Mansfield High School baseball team in 1971, six years before Tom Brady was born. Comment about this column at theownersbox2020@gmail.com.