Some great football players retired early, and usually for good reasons, and even if they had gas left in their proverbial tank

Gale Sayers in his Chicago Bears uniform

Photo courtesy of ESPN


… many hall-of-famers

The world of NFL football proclaimed shock when 29-year-old QB Andrew Luck announced last week that he was retiring. However, he was certainly not the first professional football player to do so when he had some very productive years remaining.

ESPN listed a number of athletes who decided to hang it up while they were still very productive. Here are the bios of the NFL players, with my comments about each after that.

Gale Sayers

The halfback spent just seven years -- 1965 to 1971 -- in the NFL, but was actually limited to playing five seasons due to injuries to both knees, among other minor injuries. But those five seasons with the Chicago Bears were certainly ones to write home about.

In the mere 68 games he appeared during his professional football career, he notched a total of 4,956 yards and 39 touchdowns. The four-time Pro Bowler was also the 1965 NFL Rookie of the Year and the 1969 NFL Comeback Player of the year, and led the league in rushing yards in 1966 and 1969. In 1972, Sayers retired at the age of 29 due to limitations from those injuries. Despite his short career, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977.

“Andrew Luck joins the list of shocking early retirements,” ESPN, 
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/27460472/andrew-luck-joins-list-shocking-early-retirements

[Gale Sayers may have been the most spectacular running back I have seen in my years. Coming out of Kansas, he has the best moves and just left defenders standing still. It was very sad to see him retire, but his numbers were definitely hurt by the early departure.

Still, the selection committee for the NFL Hall of Fame still considered him worthy, and that was appropriate. Numbers aren’t everything.”]

Jim Brown

After nine seasons with the Browns, the great fullback retired in 1965 at age 30. In his final season he rushed for 1,544 yards on 289 carries, scored 21 TDs, and was named MVP in leading the Browns to the NFL title game. He had led the NFL in rushing yards in eight of his nine seasons and left the game as its all-time leading rusher.

Brown announced his retirement in a mid-July news conference in London, near where "The Dirty Dozen" was being filmed. He still had one year to go on a contract that paid him $60,000 a season.

[Jim Brown may have been the greatest running back of all time. Coming out of Syracuse, which back in those years was producing fabulous running backs, he dazzled the NFL, which in the 1950s was just a league without national recognition. Few games were televised, but he was big, fast, agile, powerful, with great moves.

Brown retired prior to the 1966 season after amassing 12,312 career yards rushing. It lasted until 1984 when Walter Payton broke it in his tenth season.]

Barry Sanders

Sanders was only 31 and within 1,500 yards of breaking Walter Payton's career rushing record when he hung up his cleats just before training camp began in 1999. "The reason I am retiring is very simple," Sanders said in a statement. "My desire to exit the game is greater than my desire to remain in it."

In 1998, Sanders, a Pro Bowl selection all 10 of his NFL seasons, had run for 1,491 yards on 343 carries. The Lions made the playoffs in five of his 10 years, but had won just one playoff game.

[Barry Sanders was another of my top 5 running back picks. He had fabulous moves and was very quick and fast. He made the Lions the team they were then, even if they never went far in the playoffs.

He definitely shocked the world with his retirement. He just said that it was time. Period. Never looked back even though he had some juice left in the engine.]

Calvin Johnson

In 2016, at age 30, the wide receiver and six-time Pro Bowler announced he would be stepping away from the game.

Nicknamed "Megatron" and considered one of the greatest wide receivers of all time, Johnson spent his entire NFL career with the Detroit Lions, who drafted him second overall in 2007.

In his final season in the league, Johnson racked up 1,214 yards and nine touchdowns, but that wasn't before he broke Jerry Rice's single-season record in total yards in 2012, finishing with 1,964 yards. Johnson later opened up to ESPN about why he stepped away from the game, citing his history of concussions and injuries.

[Calvin Johnson was simply outstanding, but he was not the best ever, like some younger fans think. I do not think that he ever quite reached the level of a Jerry Rice, but he was sensational, quick, with great hands and feet.

He made many great catches because of his physique. He definitely had some years left in him, but like Luck, he made his decision because of injuries. It was the right one.]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/27460472/andrew-luck-joins-list-shocking-early-retirements

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