Which Steelers jerseys should be permanently retired?

Officially the Steelers have only retired two jersey numbers in their team’s history. Unofficially eleven other jersey numbers are retired.

In 1964 the Steelers retired number 70 in honor of Ernie Stautner. Then in 2014, the Steelers decided to retire Joe Greene’s number 75. After all, Joe Greene was the draft pick that began the Steelers trek to becoming an NFL dynasty in the ‘70s.

During Joe Greene’s tenure with the Steelers, he and many other teammates have gone to the Hall of Fame Mel Blount, Jack Ham, Jack Lambert, Mike Webster, Terry Bradshaw, and Franco Harris. When the first Steelers dynasty ended then a few more players came along that have since ended their careers in Canton, Ohio including, Jerome Bettis, Troy Polamalu, Dermontti Dawson.

Plus, a few others Steelers who deserve to go to the Hall of Fame or that fans will remember for their contributions to the Steelers, such as Hines Ward, Maurkice Pouncy, Ryan Shazier. There are potentially three others currently playing that the Steelers could retire their jersey numbers or use the numbers sparingly when their careers end.

Sure the Steelers have the option to retire a lot of jersey numbers. Of course, if they do, the number could start adding up. The team with the most retired numbers currently are the Chicago Bears, with 14. Three teams, the Raiders, Falcons, and Cowboys, have chosen not to retire jersey numbers. The Steelers, like the Washington Football Team, do so sparingly. However, with the Steelers, it morphs into not using the jersey number again while not officially retiring it.

So with two jerseys retired and knowing the Steelers have not used others for decades, should the Steelers officially retire at least some of the jersey numbers they have not used in a while. Then throw the remaining numbers back into circulation.  While it sounds easy enough, the question comes to which numbers do the Steelers retire.