As we make our way through the best players to ever wear Kansas City Chiefs jerseys, we've arrived at our first retired number, and it comes with mixed emotions. For the sake of celebrating Chiefs history, it's always fun to reflect on a legendary player's career. For the sake of debate, well, the Chiefs have taken the fun out of this (and other) numbers. That brings us to the lopsided look at No. 3.
The complete history of Chiefs players to wear No. 3
The legend: Jan Stenerud
The metamorphosis of every NFL position over the years can sometimes make it hard to properly appreciate the earliest stars at a given position, and kicker is a great example. Today, it's a specialist trained for the job since childhood. But back in 1966, it was a Norwegian ski jumper who'd never played the sport until he got to college.
Jan Stenerud attended Montana State on a skiing scholarship, but a coach spotted him booting a ball around campus and steered him toward a new sport. He nailed a 59-yard field goal in 1965, which set a new college record, and the Chiefs drafted him in the third round of the 1966 AFL redshirt draft—more on this in a second.
Stenerud would go on to set numerous records, from career field goal attempts (436) to consecutive games played (186) to consecutive games scoring a field goal (16). Another mark featured Stenerud hitting a Super Bowl record 48-yarder as he accounted for the Chiefs' first nine points in their upset win over Minnesota in Super Bowl IV.
It's worth noting that Stenerud's career didn't end in Kansas City. He kicked four more seasons for the Green Bay Packers and another two with the Minnesota Vikings before retiring in 1985. With 373 field goals for 1,699 career points across 19 seasons, Stenerud trailed only George Blanda on the all-time scoring list at the time. He remains one of only six specialists in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
For such an early franchise hero, the Chiefs made sure the legacy would never be tarnished by retiring the No. 3 in his honor in 1992.
The only other: Ben Agajanian
Long before Stenerud took No. 3 off the board, the number briefly belonged to one of the strangest careers in pro football history.
Ben Agajanian lost four toes on his foot in a freight elevator accident in 1941. After getting fitted for a custom square-toed shoe, he turned that tragedy into a 13-season kicking career that spanned 10 different teams across 3 leagues. He's widely credited as football's first true kicking specialist—the first player of his kind to exist on a roster to kick the ball and nothing more.
Agajanian's stop with the Chiefs was actually back when they were known as the Dallas Texas, back in 1961, when at age 42, he played 3 games for the franchise before Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers traded for him to fill in for Paul Hornung (who was on National Guard duty). He converted 3 of 9 field goals (including a 51-yard attempt) in his short stint with the franchise.
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