American football is a brutal sport. The combination of speed, power, and open field hits along with protective equipment that can do just as much harm as good, puts a lot of star players our of business early. Sometimes it’s a choice, others it’s because of injuries that they are never going to recover from at 100 percent.
There are hundreds of NFL players who left in their prime, but let’s look at a few of the top NFL players who retired young.
Andrew Luck
The Stanford star played phenomenally for the Indianapolis Colts after Peyton Manning’s departure. But he called it quits at the tender age of 29. The sad part is many people were mad at him for deciding to retire. “Shut up and play football,” they said, “Earn your millions.” Well, these people were not playing through lacerated kidneys, perpetually torn abdomens, and dealing with multiple surgeries to repair their shoulders. They weren’t living in constant pain.
The thing with Andrew Luck was the timing. It didn’t come during the offseason or after taking a few big hits during a game. It came right before a preseason game during a Saturday night warm-up. He was warming up and tossing the ball and decided he was done. There were high playoff hopes for the Colts that year, so the fans showed some animosity towards Luck and his decision.
Jim Brown
Jim Brown is arguably the best running back ever. And in the offseason after the 1965 campaign, Jim Brown left the NFL. He was just 29-years-old and coming off a season as the league’s leading rusher. Two years before, he had led the Cleveland Browns to a Super Bowl victory. So, it was a shock … he was at the height of his career, and he left it for acting. In his career, he put up 12,312 rushing yards. But despite just nine seasons in the league, his record held up until a man named Walter Payton came along. But had Walter Payton called it quits after nine seasons, he would have come up 2000 yards shy of Jim Brown’s record. So, imagine the numbers JB could have put up if he played for 13 seasons like the Chicago Bears great did.
Terrell Davis
He went to the Super Bowl twice and won both times. He also won the NFL regular season MVP award and was a Super Bowl MVP award winner. But at 29 years old, his knee had enough of football. He played two more years after a bad knee injury in 1999, but in 2002 called it. After just 78 professional games Terrell Davis retired. Still, He was good enough to get into the NFL Hall of Fame. This might be because of the fact that he put up 2008 rushing yards and 21 TDs in 1998 along an additional 217 receiving yards and 2 TD receptions.
Rob Gronkowski
Rob ‘Gronked’ his way into retirement after the Pats won the 2018 NFL Title. With three rings on his fingers and a laundry list of injuries plaguing him, it seemed like the right time to retire … even if he was just 29. He makes the list because he officially retired after 100 career games, in which he stacked up 79 TDs, and just under 8-thousand yards. But it looks like he’ll be back in 2020. His body just needed a break. You can’t be as physical of a player as Gronk and not suffer the consequences.
Will he have the same type of productivity with the Bucs that he did with the Pats in the years leading up to his retirement? It’s a good question. He does have Tom Brady slinging the ball … so there shouldn’t be much of an adjustment as far as QB to TE dynamics are concerned. But Gronk might be a bit rusty, and Brady … well … he’s old. That said, he’s on a solid team and has a chance to rack up a couple more seasons’ worth of receptions, yards, and TDs – not to mention his ability to lay massive blocks downfield which make or break plays.
