Giants’ Abdul Carter jokes about failing to get retired jersey numbers from these two franchise legends

While Lawrence Taylor doesn’t want Abdul Carter wearing his retired No. 56, one of Lawrence’s former teammates said he would’ve been just fine with the Giants unretiring his number if either Carter or Jaxson Dart wanted to wear it. Phil Simms’ family, however, had something to say about that, leaving Carter without a shot at the also-retired No. 11.

A former Giants quarterback whose number was retired by the team in 1995, Simms was recently asked what he would say if Dart (who wore No. 2 in college) asked to wear his number.

“I’d let him have it in a second,” Simms said. “Can you just help it a little bit and make it better? I think it would a lot of fun. It wouldn’t bother me.”

Simms said he would have had a similar response if Carter wanted to wear his number. Carter actually wore No. 11 during his career at Penn State, carrying on a tradition of decorated Penn State linebackers who donned the number (a list of players that includes current Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons).

And yet Simms’ family “outvoted” him on the matter, he told Gary Myers.

“Damn,” Carter posted on X after hearing of the Simms decision. “At this point I’mma be out there with just my last name on my jersey, no number … [Just kidding], it’s all love. Just wanna play football!”