The best Kansas City Chiefs to ever wear the uniform: No. 28

In this special offseason series, we analyze the best players in Kansas City Chiefs history to wear every single uniform number. Here’s No. 28.

Today’s entry is the easiest one of all; there’s only one choice.

Like childhood sweethearts who get married and die after a long life together, the Chiefs and Abner Haynes are forever wed on this number 28. No one else will ever wear it in the future, and no one else came before Haynes. A permanent pairing.

Typically we’d walk through all of the options and discuss them, but this gives us a good chance to discuss Haynes, who deserves this sort of space in all honesty. If you’ve never heard of Haynes, which is nothing to be embarrassed about since it has been well over 50 years ago since he last played for the Chiefs, the best place to start is this quote from legendary head coach Hank Stram:

"“He was a franchise player before they talked about franchise players. He did it all — rushing, receiving, kickoff returns, punt returns. He gave us the dimension we needed to be a good team in Dallas.”"

If you’ll remember, the Chiefs were in Dallas before they were in Kansas City (and they were the Texans before they were even the Chiefs). Over 50 years ago, there was actually another entire league set up to compete with the NFL and some of the best prospects in the draft would choose to go to the AFL instead of NFL if they were the highest bidder (or best salesmen). Haynes was one such prospect.

Haynes led the American Football League in rushing yards and touchdowns his first three seasons, but he was a wonder any time he got the ball. Consider the following:

• He rushed 794 times for 3,814 yards and 39 touchdowns, giving him a 4.8 yards/carry average.
• He caught 199 passes for 2,739 yards and 19 touchdowns.
• He returned 55 punts for 598 yards and 52 kicks for 1,326 yards and 1 touchdown.

In other words, Haynes was a dynamic offensive threat 50 years before a guy like Tyreek Hill hits the NFL to do the same.

Unfortunately Haynes spent only 5 total seasons with the Chiefs before the team traded him to the Denver Broncos. From there he played two more seasons and then a single year split between the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets. But the Chiefs decided early on to retire his number, so Haynes has been the only No. 28 that’s ever existed in team history.

Next: The Best to Wear It: No. 27

Congratulations to Abner Haynes for being the greatest Chiefs player to ever wear the No. 28 on his uniform!