Why is anybody wearing #80.  With the impact that Troy Brown has made to this team, it seems inconceivable that anyone would wear this #.  It should be retired!

The league has rules as to what numbers receivers can wear. Teams are starting to run out of numbers, thus the trend away from retiring numbers and towards ring of honors, team hall of fames, etc.

I beleive the team retires numbers if the player is in the HOF or going to be in the HOF. The equptment manager also decides what numbers are in cirulation. remember there are 85 guys in camp right now.  

There needs to be a grass roots campaign to retire #80. Granted that other players have been and are incredible contributors to the team, but Troy Brown has defined the essence of being a Patriot throughout his career and deserves this exceptional honor.

I think retiring numbers is silly, unless the NFL wants to start using three-digit numbers or allowing alphanumerics. The problem is, with only 99 numbers available, and with rules about which positions can wear what numbers, a team will run out of numbers pretty fast if they are retiring them.
There are other, and perhaps better, ways to honor great players, and I think the Patriots have been doing a pretty good job of that lately.