Arizona Cardinals Add #8 Patch to Jersey in Memory of Larry Wilson

The Arizona Cardinals have added a memorial patch on their jerseys to honour the life of former player Larry Wilson, who died last month at the age of 82. The patch shows Wilson’s number 8 in white on a black circle, it will be worn on the upper left corner of all Cardinals jerseys beginning with this past weekend’s games and will remain there for the rest of the 2020 NFL season.

A safety, Wilson played all thirteen of his seasons with the then-St. Louis Cardinals from 1960 through 1972. Wilson was an NFL All-Star in eight of those seasons including a string of five consecutive First Team All-Pro selections from 1966 to 1970.

Wilson was ultimately elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1978.

There are a slew of interesting stories related to Wilson as a player, including the time he broke both his hands one season and just kept playing while wearing a cast on each… but this one just might be my favourite Larry Wilson story:

They wanted to honor him with a statue.

They planned it for Busch Stadium, right by Stan Musial.

They even raised the funds, around $80K.

And he said he didn’t want a statue — donate the money to Children’s Hospital instead.

That was Larry Wilson.https://t.co/sFEs2wkfO2
— Benjamin Hochman (@hochman) September 22, 2020

Despite never playing a game in the postseason throughout his entire career, his accomplishments during the regular season still earned him a spot at #43 on The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Football Players ever in 1999.