Oh, baby! Cro calls it a career
ANTONIO CROMARTIE will have plenty of time to raise his kids now. All 14 of them.
The former Jet cornerback — and prolific baby maker — announced Monday he is officially retiring from the NFL.
The 33-year-old, who did not play last season, wrote a lengthy message on Instagram explaining his decision and thanking the four teams he played for in his 11-year career.
“Today is the day I knew I would eventually have to face but never wanted to accept,” he said. “After 27 years of playing football, today I say farewell. God blessed me with the opportunity to play in the NFL for 11 years, and after much consideration and prayer, I’d like to officially announce my retirement.”
Cromartie told the Daily News last year that the reason he was not playing in 2017 was because he decided to kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality and social injustice.
That topic did not come up in his farewell message on Instagram, though.
Cromartie, who played five seasons with the Jets, is a fourtime Pro Bowl corner and was first-team All Pro in 2007.
He was drafted in the first round, 19th overall, in 2006 by the San Diego Chargers, where he spent his first four seasons before he was traded to the Jets.
He is also notably known as the player who fathered 14 children and struggled to remember their names in a 2010 “Hard Knocks” clip (it was only eight kids at the time).