Spazsdad wrote:They were at one time but the rule was changed and they are now considered different numbers.
And reasonably so. The numbers are intended to provide a means of identification different from other players on the team, while maintaining some decorum (no fractions, decimals, pi, etc.). The fact of mathematical equivalency doesn't detract from meeting that intent.
At the time that rule changed (maybe 10 years ago), no one considered how a computer program might address it. It would be, in fact, such an easy fix for the programmers, to make that field a numerical label rather than a number, that no one should consider that a major reason to not allow it.