There will be something new in the N.F.L. next year: nothing.
Among the usual array of 12s and 88s and 97s dotting the league’s fields next season will be some humble 0s after the league on Tuesday voted to allow that number on jerseys for the first time in decades. At least one player, Jaguars wide receiver Calvin Ridley, has already said he plans to wear No. 0. Zero’s big cousin, 00, remains barred for now.
Although no N.F.L. players have worn uniforms with 0 or 00 in games since the 1980s, zeros have a history in the league. In other sports, 0, while nominally symbolizing the nothingness of the void, has adorned the backs of many players, even some greats.
In the N.F.L., the biggest star, by far, to make his mark in zeros was the Hall of Famer Jim Otto, an Oakland Raiders center from 1960 to 1974. Otto took 00 in his second season after a year as a more prosaic 50. It is no coincidence that the two O’s in “Otto” and the two 0s in “00” bear a resemblance: Players with O’s in their names — like Al Oliver, Orlando Woolridge and Oddibe McDowell — have been frequent wearers of 0.
The jersey is most common in the N.B.A., where more than 100 players have donned a 0 and more than 50 have worn 00, including the Hall of Famer Robert Parish. And those numbers are booming: While Woolridge and Olden Polynice were almost alone in the 1990s, 24 players this season sport 0s and seven wear 00.
The current roster includes Tyrese Maxey and Jayson Tatum (0) and JaVale McGee (00)— none of whom bear a prominent O in their names. All came upon their numbers in personal ways: For Damian Lillard, the number is a tribute to his hometown, Oakland, Calif.
A key instigator of the deluge in N.B.A. zeros seems to have been Gilbert Arenas, who wore No. 0 with the Golden State Warriors and Washington Wizards from 2002 to 2010. His undeniably cool nickname, Agent Zero, didn’t hurt.
Arenas said he started wearing 0 in college at Arizona. “They said, ‘We’re going to release these two numbers this year: 1 and 0,’” Arenas told Basketball Network. “When I seen that 0, I was like, ‘Man, that was how many minutes they said I would play in Arizona.’ I was like, ‘I want to go with 0, so no matter what I’m doing, I can always look at it as this was what they said you was going to play: zero minutes.’”
Alana Beard, Jackie Young and Satou Sabally were among the W.N.B.A. players to wear No. 0, and Ruth Riley and Tracy Reid wore No. 00. College players have adopted the number as well: Three teams at this year’s men’s Final Four and two at the women’s Final Four list a No. 0 on their rosters.
Russell Westbrook, a nine-time All-Star, wore 0 in college and the pros. “You go with the zero when you’ve been through something and you are looking to get a new beginning,” he said in 2007 when playing at U.C.L.A. “It helps you get going again. It helps you get the swag back.”
That was the mind-set of Oliver, who was probably the most accomplished No. 0 in Major League Baseball but also the first, in 1978 after a trade. “Zero is a starting point, and I wanted to start all over again,” Oliver said in 2017, recalling a trade from Pittsburgh to Texas. “A lot of people thought it was ‘O,’ for Oliver, which makes sense, too. But rather than it being an ‘O,’ it was zero.”
Some players just like the feel of it: Adam Ottavino of the Mets will wear the number for the 11th year this season.
Not every sport has embraced nothingness, however. In the N.H.L., only one player, Neil Sheehy, wore 0, and only two wore 00, John Davidson and Martin Biron (for three games). In the 1996-97 season, the N.H.L. barred those numbers because of problems with the league’s digital database.
FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, also bars 0 and 00, although a few players have briefly defied the ban, notably Hicham Zerouali when he played for Aberdeen in Scotland. Zerouali’s nickname, for obvious reasons, was Zero.
And despite the N.F.L.’s belated return to the zero party, one group will still be left out. The league is allowing any player to wear the number except offensive and defensive linemen. Sorry, Osa Odighizuwa.
