New trend: NFL players retire early
The breaking news out of Arizona last week was greeted with applause by not just Cardinals fans but also by football fans everywhere who appreciate a tremendous talent. Larry Fitzgerald, who will turn 37 on Aug. 31, announced he is coming back for a 17th NFL season. “This season was among the most fun of my career,” he tweeted. “The future is so bright for this team & I relish the opportunity to build with this talented young nucleus.”
The breaking news out of Carolina last week was greeted with sadness by not just Panthers fans but also by football fans everywhere who appreciate a tremendous talent. Luke Kuechly announced he is retiring at 28 after just eight NFL seasons. “I still want to play, but I don’t think it’s the right decision,” he said in a video. “I thought about it for a long time. In my heart, I know [retiring] is the right thing to do.”
What a contrast. Fitzgerald already is a rarity, playing so long in a brutally physical sport where the average player lasts just
3.3 seasons. He doesn’t need the money; spotrac.com estimated he has made $175 million during his fabulous career. Clearly, Fitzgerald still loves the game and the sacrifices it requires to play it. He ranks second behind legendary Jerry Rice on the NFL’s all-time receptions and receiving yardage lists.
Kuechly isn’t the rarity that he once was. Other great players have retired recently in their prime, leaving millions of dollars on the table. In the past year, Rob Gronkowski at 29 and Andrew Luck at 29 have walked away from the sport. Calvin Johnson and Patrick Willis were among those who did it before them.
Good for the players, who make their money and then have a chance to live a normal, healthy life.
Bad for the game, which isn’t nearly as much fun to watch without so many of its stars.
Luck might be an exception. Quarterbacks still want to play as long as they can, probably because their salaries are so astronomical. Think Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger. But Gronkowski and Kuechly? They are near the front end of a trend that is going to continue to pick up steam.
“Players are definitely getting smarter,” Hall of Famer Carl Eller told the New York Times.
Eller runs the Retired Players Association, which tries to help players transition into life after football.
“They are gathering information to make some tough decisions,” Eller said. “For myself, it was all fuzzy ahead of me. It was one step at a time. It was all hearsay. You were going blind into the dark. But today, there’s more light at the end of the tunnel.”
Much more is known about concussions and their impact. Today’s players hear about the variety of health issues that have older players struggling to function normally. They have watched too many of those older players commit suicide.
Gronkowski, the best tight end in history, told CBS News he “probably had 20 concussions in my life, no lie. I remember five blackout ones.” Kuechly missed seven games because of at least three known concussions, including one against the New Orleans Saints in 2016 that left him crying on the field. It was an absolutely horrific image.
But it’s not just concussions. It’s the overall toll that football takes on a player’s body. Gronkowski, who retired from the New England Patriots last March, said he had nine surgeries for back, arm and knee injuries and told CBS News he had internal bleeding after the 2019 Super Bowl that required a pint of blood to be drained from his body. Kuechly, the NFL’s defensive player of the year in 2013 and a fivetime, first-team All-Pro, had surgery to repair a shoulder injury, another to fix a torn labrum. Luck, who retired just days before his Indianapolis Colts opened the regular season, had a lacerated kidney and a major shoulder injury that forced him to sit out the 2017 season.
Player safety measures have made the game better for the players, but, make no mistake, it is still an incredibly violent sport. People who say it has turned into flag football are fools. They couldn’t be more wrong.
“For the last four years or so, I’ve been in this cycle of injury, pain, rehab, injury, pain, rehab, and it’s been unceasing, unrelenting, both in-season and offseason,” Luck said. “I haven’t been able to live the life I want to live. The only way I see out is to no longer play football.”
Luck came back from his shoulder surgery to throw for 4,593 yards and 39 touchdowns in 2018 and led the Colts to the playoffs, making his retirement that much more stunning. Colts owner Jim Irsay estimated Luck walked away from potential earnings of $450 million.
I’m thinking Luck really wanted his life back.
But salaries have reached such an incredible level in pro sports that it is easier — although never easy — for star players to say enough is enough when it comes to money and put a greater value on their long-term health. Luck made $97 million in his seven NFL seasons, according to spotrac.com. Gronkowski earned more than $53 million in his nine seasons. Kuechly made nearly $64 million in his eight seasons.
Many other top players will follow in their path and leave football prematurely.
Enjoy watching the great Fitzgerald next season. We’re not going to see many more like him in more ways than one.