Boldin leaves Bills, NFL on his own terms
Charlottesville may have been tipping point
Things change fast in the NFL. But Anquan Boldin’s bolting from the Buffalo Bills after 13 days is truly something to behold.
For starters, his decision to retire is to applauded and respected. We all owe it to ourselves and our employers to be “all in.” And in professional football, not being all in can mean leaving the field on a stretcher.
Boldin, a 14-year veteran, turns 37 in October. His career will land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday. He had nothing left to prove on the field.
Still, like many, he struggled with the idea of retirement, because while the mind was telling him one thing, the body was telling him another. The guy can still play, as evidenced by his 67 catches for 584 yards and eight TDs with the Detroit Lions last season.
As the summer dragged on and the Bills kept in contact, Boldin struggled with making a decision. But on Aug. 7, he agreed to a oneyear deal worth up to $4 million. When he met with reporters at St. John Fisher College, an upbeat Boldin expressed his goal to win another Super Bowl title, as he did with the Baltimore Ravens in 2012, and to leave a legacy.
“You want to be in control of your legacy at the end of the day,” he said.
And at the end of the day, Boldin was.
Surely, he could have played this season and been everything general manager Brandon Beane and coach Sean McDermott hoped for. A consummate professional, a classy presence for the franchise, a veteran showing a rebuilding team full of young players how to get it done, a free agent signing with residual benefits for years to come. That’s a fine legacy. And while he respects players who choose symbolic protests, like taking a knee during the anthem, Boldin said he prefers to head to Capitol Hill in hopes of sparking positive change. He continues to organize small groups of NFL players to join him.
It’s easy to think the Aug. 11 trade of young star Sammy Watkins, coupled with Boldin’s shaky night in Buffalo’s 20-16 preseason game loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, caused him to rethink his decision to join the Bills.
But if you think that, you are grossly underestimating Boldin and doing him a disservice.
Because those football developments didn’t affect him nearly as much as the events of Aug. 12 in Charlottesville, Va., a day when hate in America turned deadly.
In a statement released through ESPN’s Jim Trotter, Boldin spoke of football as a utopia “we all strive for as a nation. People from all different races, religions and backgrounds working for one shared goal.
“Football has afforded me a platform throughout my career to have a greater impact on my humanitarian work. At this time, I feel drawn to make the larger fight for human rights a priority. My life’s purpose is bigger than football.’’
We can talk about the impact of Boldin’s retirement on the Bills. We can talk how, with Jordan Matthews still nursing a cracked bone in his sternum, rookie Zay Jones has risen to No. 1 on the depth chart at wide receiver. We can talk about quarterback Tyrod Taylor being set up to fail.
We can talk about how Beane can no longer point to the Boldin signing to quiet talk about tanking for a higher draft pick.
Or we can celebrate Boldin’s career and his pursuit of a greater good.