In the NFL, there are many great athletes and talents that play the game well. Yet in the past offseason, two of the best players in the entire league decided to hang up the cleats: Calvin Johnson, wide receiver for the Detroit Lions and Marshawn Lynch, running back for the Seattle Seahawks, two of the best at their respective positions.
Calvin Johnson has totaled over 700 plus receptions, 11,000 plus yards receiving and 80 plus touchdowns over his great nine-year career. Johnson also holds records for most receiving yards in a single season by a receiver in NFL history and the second most receiving yards in a single game.
Marshawn Lynch had over 2,000 attempts with 9,000 plus rushing yards to show for it. While doing all that, he still managed to get over 200 plus catches for 1,900 plus yards. Combined, he has over 80 total touchdowns for his career.
So why do two of the most prolific players of our game want to quit the game so early? The answer is injuries and championships. Some football fans remember two years ago that there were three good players on the San Francisco 49ers that retired early. Chris Borland did so for health concerns in the future. Patrick Willis, one of the hardest-hitting middle linebackers of this past decade, retired due to nagging injuries in his feet. Lastly, right tackle Anthony Davis retired for the same reasons as Chris Borland. All three were either in their early 20s or 30s and all had health concerns or nagging injuries.
In Lynch’s case, he is content and feels like he does not want to risk getting injured in the near future. He does have a great team around him with a talented undrafted rookie coming back to help, as well as a recent Super Bowl champion quarterback in Russell Wilson and a championship-caliber defense.
Yet he has a championship ring and millions in the bank and is also known to care a lot about the foundation he started a few years ago. So this retirement is not too much of a surprise. He had also contemplated the retirement offseason when he held out for a few weeks for a new deal. But, after a pay increase, he returned to normal form until injuries derailed his season. Everyone that has watched him play knows that he is a running back to be missed.
Now, Johnson has dealt with many nagging hamstring and ankle injuries over the past two seasons, which many think factored into the decision. But many see this as similar to another Lions football legend, Barry Sanders. Sanders, Lions running back of the 1990s, also retired early in his career after rushing for more than 10,000 yards in 10 seasons and also having 10 consecutive 1,000 rushing yards seasons. In the prime of his career, he retired due to a lack of motivation.
He had dominated and showed millions that he was one of the best, if not the best, running back of all time. Stuck in a contract and not wanting to leave the Lions organization, he retired in one of the most surprising moves in NFL history.
Now, roughly 15 years after Sanders’ retirement, we see the same with Calvin Johnson. In his nine seasons he has only been to the playoffs twice, both first round exits. He had to endure the only 0 - 16 season in NFL history, and with the way the team has performed this previous season, it is safe to assume we will not be seeing the Lions in the big game anytime soon. Also, Johnson is still under contract for four more seasons. So instead of playing for the money, he is deciding to hang it up.
With both of these retirements you see a small reason why many may think it happened. Although there can be numerous reasons why the players decided to quit so early, one fact is going to remain; these two great players will truly be missed by fans around the world.
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