{"id":6875,"date":"2026-07-10T06:34:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=6875"},"modified":"2026-07-10T06:34:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:34:52","slug":"bulldozing-renegade-john-riggins-will-get-his-number-retired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=6875","title":{"rendered":"Bulldozing renegade John Riggins will get his number retired"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bruising running back led the Washington franchise to its first Super Bowl victory after the 1982 season. The team will retire his No. 44 on Nov. 8.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Arenado homers, Kelly pitches 7 strong innings as Diamondbacks beat Padres 3-1 to split series<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
John Riggins was named the most valuable player for Super Bowl XVII in a 27-17 win over the Miami Dolphins. (AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

In the latest attempt by the Washington Commanders\u2019 new owners to embrace the team\u2019s glory years, the franchise announced on Thursday that it will retire John Riggins\u2019s No. 44 at halftime of their Nov. 8 game against the Los Angeles Rams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain players whose impact goes far beyond statistics, championships and accolades; they become woven into the fabric of the franchise. John Riggins is one of those players,\u201d Commanders managing partner Josh Harris said <\/a>in a statement released by the team.<\/p>\n

Left unsaid was the fact that no figure in the franchise\u2019s history may better represent its chaotic rise and fall over the past half century than the 76-year-old running back turned actor who would later perform<\/a> Shakespeare on Broadway.<\/p>\n

Through the end of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, Riggins was one of football\u2019s most-dominant backs, at times literally carrying Washington to a Super Bowl championship. Then in retirement he became a constant critic of then-team owner Daniel Snyder, blaming him for the organization\u2019s trouble-filled descent this century in a way many of its former stars would not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to say that in the years 1982, \u201983 and \u201984 we were a team of characters with character and when it came to characters John was in a very subtle way the character of characters,\u201d Riggins\u2019s longtime teammate, quarterback Joe Theismann, said Thursday by phone from Lake Tahoe, California, during a break in the American Century Championship golf tournament.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of football reasons Washington will make Riggins\u2019s No. 44 the seventh number officially retired by the team along with Darrell Green\u2019s 28, Art Monk\u2019s 81, Sean Taylor\u2019s 21, Sonny Jurgensen\u2019s 9, Bobby Mitchell\u2019s 49 and Sammy Baugh\u2019s 33. He rushed for 11,352 yards in his career \u2014 7,472 of them for Washington \u2014 and had 104 rushing touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Originally a fullback when he was drafted by the New York Jets in 1971, he developed into a bruising, relentless running back in Coach Joe Gibbs\u2019s offense in Washington, rushing for more than 1,000 yards four times with the team and probably would have a fifth year if not for a labor dispute between the NFL\u2019s players and owners that limited him to just eight games in 1982. But he led the team to the Super Bowl that season, rushing for 166 yards in a 27-17 victory over Miami in Super Bowl XVII. He was named Super Bowl MVP.<\/p>\n

Theismann remembers Gibbs telling the players the night before the Super Bowl that as long as they could stay within a score of the faster Dolphins, he believed Riggins could wear them down behind Washington\u2019s stout offensive line.<\/p>

Read more Durbin\u2019s 2-run homer lifts surging Red Sox past White Sox for a 6th straight win<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe managed to ride him to a championship,\u201d Theismann said.<\/p>\n

In 1983, at 34, an age when most running backs are deep in decline, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound Riggins ran for 1,347 yards and a league-leading 24 touchdowns. The next year he had 1,239 yards and 14 touchdowns. He was named to the NFL\u2019s 1980\u2019s All-Decade Team and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a lot of people thought about JR they didn\u2019t think about speed, they just thought about power,\u201d Theismann said. \u201cBut he was really fast, too. John could run to the outside and not just up the middle. He could just string a defense out and then use his power and speed to break through an opening.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet it was the Riggins off the field that has endeared him to Washington fans. He was part of the team\u2019s famous Five O\u2019Clock Club, an old shed on the practice field grounds where he and the offensive linemen went to sip beers after practice. He was always the one with the dry quote, once ending a year-long holdout over his contract by telling reporters, \u201cI\u2019m bored, I\u2019m broke and I\u2019m back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps his most famous incident came when he attended the National Press Club dinner in 1985 and was placed at a table with Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O\u2019Connor, astronaut John Glenn and Virginia Gov. Charles Robb. Several news accounts at the time reported<\/a> that Riggins drank heavily and then told O\u2019Connor: \u201cCome on Sandy baby, loosen up. You\u2019re too tight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riggins never denied the incident and later explained it away in several interviews as feeling nervous about being in such an important setting.<\/p>\n

For a time, Riggins tried acting, then he returned to the Washington area in the early 2000s to talk about football on sports radio. With Synder overseeing the Washington franchise\u2019s collapse into chaos, Riggins did not hold back with his fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis franchise has been taken over by someone who has the mindset of a child,\u201d he said at a WTOP town hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a bad guy that owns this team,\u201d he said<\/a> on a Showtime appearance.<\/p>\n

For many years, he stayed away from Washington games. Even after moving to a radio station owned by Snyder in 2016 he remained an independent voice. It\u2019s only been in the last couple of seasons, after Harris\u2019s group bought the team, that he has returned to games at the Northwest Stadium.<\/p>

Read more Giants beat the Rockies 8-2 to start a 4-game series<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad JR is getting his due,\u201d Theismann, said. \u201cIt\u2019s so long overdue.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running back led Washington franchise to its first Super Bowl victory after 1982 season. The team will retire his No. 44 on Nov. 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nBulldozing renegade John Riggins will get his number retired - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=6875\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bulldozing renegade John Riggins will get his number retired - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Running back led Washington franchise to its first Super Bowl victory after 1982 season. 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