Cal center Saffell quits football
Cal center Michael Saffell, the Pac12 Football ScholarAthlete of the Year last season, announced Friday that he is retiring from football because of injury.
Saffell, who had started in 15 of 17 games the past two seasons — including all four games of his senior season in 2020 — had been expected to return after the NCAA guaranteed an extra season of eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic.
He graduated from the Haas Business School in December.
“Being a football studentathlete at Cal has been more than I could have dreamed of,” Saffell said in a statement released by Cal. “I’ve had so many opportunities to excel on the field, as well as in the classroom and the community. There are many people to thank including my Cal football teammates, coaches and staff, as well as the University’s professors, our fans and so many more. This was a difficult decision but the right one for me.”
Saffell, who did not specifiy his injuries, replaced former running back Patrick Laird as the head of the Cal Athletics Summer Reading Challenge in 2019. Saffell helped transition the program, designed for elementaryschool students, into an online format this past summer.
“Mike has been an absolute pleasure to coach and be around the last four years,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said in a statement. “He embodies everything a collegiate studentathlete should be. Not only has Mike been a tremendous player on the field, but just as importantly, he has been a leader among his teammates, as well as in the classroom and the community.”