C Patch on NFL Jersey: What the Letter C Means and What Captains Do

The letter C on an NFL jersey stands for captain. A player who wears it has been named by his team as a captain, and the team's coach decides who is on the field in that role for the game. The NFL announced the patch as part of a league-wide effort to emphasize the role of team captains, and NFL.com wrote in 2007 that fans had noticed players wearing a "C" on their jerseys that season.

The patch does not give a player a different position, a different salary or a different set of rights in the rules. It is a recognition by the team. A report on NFL.com in 2012 quoted the veteran defensive back Champ Bailey saying that the C is "just recognition," and that a true captain appoints himself. The patch tells the viewer who the team treats as a leader, and the rulebook gives the captain a short list of jobs, which are described below.

The patch began in 2007. NFL.com reported that teams appointing season-long captains could have up to six captains wear the letter C on the upper right chest of their jerseys. A later NFL.com article, published in 2008, said the captains' initiative originated with the NFL Player Advisory Council, a group the commissioner set up in 2007 with the players' union, and that 28 teams had appointed season-long captains on offense, defense and special teams for that season.

The 2012 article by Jeff Darlington described the origin the same way. A six-member player advisory board had recommended the idea of designating a C for the jersey, and the league then allowed teams to designate up to six players to wear it.

Many captain patches carry stars under the letter. NFL.com reported in 2008 that the stars indicate the number of seasons a player has been a captain for his present team. The 2012 report described the patch as having four stars under the C, and said that captains who are voted in multiple times get one of the four stars under the C filled with gold.

Two points are worth keeping apart. The first is that the reports describe the stars as a count of seasons as captain, so a patch with more stars belongs to a player who has been a captain for more seasons. The second is that the reports were written in 2008 and 2012, and they do not describe every later change to how teams use the patch. A team can decide how it wears the patch, and the league's own rules do not set out a star scheme, so this page describes what the league reported and not a rule.

The league does not require a team to name captains at all. The 2012 NFL.com report said some teams let their players vote for captains and others have the coaching staff choose them. A few teams skip the season-long patch and name captains game by game. The report gave the Green Bay Packers as one such team, and the Packers receiver Donald Driver was quoted saying the team has 53 captains "day in and day out."

The 2008 report said four teams chose captains weekly that season, and linebacker E.J. Henderson said that being voted a captain by teammates is special. The patch follows the team's own system. Where players vote, the C is a sign of the teammates' choice. Where a coach names the captains, it is the coach's.

The rulebook adds one fixed point. In Rule 18, Section 1, Article 1, the coaches designate a maximum of six captains per team one hour and thirty minutes before kickoff. So the six on the patch is a rule for the game and not only a patch design: a team may not put more than six captains into the pregame ceremony.

The playing rules give captains a few specific roles, and all of them are about communication with the referee.

The coin toss. Not more than three minutes before the kickoff of the first half, the referee tosses a coin at the center of the field in the presence of the captains of both teams, with a limit of six per team. The rule says the captains may be active, inactive or honorary. The call of heads or tails must be made by the captain of the visiting team, or by a captain the referee designates if there is no home team. Rule 18 adds that only one captain from the visiting team can declare the call, and that the team that wins the toss may have only one captain declare its option. The team that loses the toss may also have only one captain declare its option.

The choice after the toss. The winner of the toss chooses between two privileges, the opportunity to receive or to kick off, or the choice of the goal the team will defend, unless the winner defers its choice to the second half. A captain's first choice from the alternatives is final and is not subject to change, and the captain's original call of the coin may not be changed. For the second half, the captains of both teams must inform the referee of their choices immediately before the half starts.

Overtime. At the end of regulation in a tied game, the referee tosses a coin in the same way as the pregame toss, and the visiting team captain again makes the call.

Penalty options. Only one captain is permitted to indicate the team's penalty option. When a foul gives a team a choice, the referee takes the answer from one captain and not from several players at once.

Changing captains. The coach has the prerogative of informing the referee when he wishes to change captains. A captain who is leaving the game can tell the referee which player will act as captain in his place, and when a captain leaves, the incoming substitute may tell the referee which player the coach has designated. The rulebook adds a note: a captain on the field has no authority to request a change of a fellow captain when that captain remains on the field. The coach decides, not the players.

Other contact with officials. The rules also list the cases in which the referee consults a captain, such as when there is the possibility of a measurement for a first down. These are all procedures, so a captain's formal power in the rulebook is limited to the toss, the options and the contact with the referee.

The captain rules in the rulebook speak of the captains the coach designates before the game, and they do not mention the jersey patch. The patch is the team's way of showing which players it treats as captains, and the rulebook procedures are about the six designated for the game.

The rulebook also lets a captain be honorary. That means a former player or another person may take part in the toss as one of the six, which is a separate thing from the jersey patch. The two are connected by the word captain and little else.

The rulebook sections come from the official NFL playing rules, Rule 4 for the pregame coin toss and Rule 18 for the guidelines for captains, and the overtime procedure for the second toss. The origin of the patch and the star scheme come from three NFL.com reports:

• "NFL clubs appoint captains", from 2007
• "Wearing the 'C' with honor", from the 2008 season
• "NFL captains: 'C' patch comes with varied roles, responsibilities", from 2012

The pages carry no publication date, and the years given here are read from their contents.

The reports are several years old, and teams have changed how they use the patch since then, so this page states the patch as the league described it and does not state the current practice of any single team. The page will be checked again when a new edition of the rulebook is published. More football pages are on the NFL hub, and the page on games that end in a tie covers the overtime that begins with a captain's call.