To retire or not to retire
A few aging NFL legends are still looking to take care of some unfinished business
Not many sports figures can retire on their own terms. Even fewer get to go out on top. And only the Coach Ks of the world can plan their own farewell tour.
In the NFL, a sizable number of players don’t officially announce their retirement or if they do, it’s not until a year or even years after they’ve sniffed a football field. Maybe they’re waiting to see if their bodies still have any football left in them, or if any teams are still interested in their services, or how, after a singular devotion to football, they can cope away from the game.
Those not-retired, but not not retired players are kinda like their own Schrodinger’s cat situation.
Take Eric Berry as an example. The Chiefs released Berry in 2019 after two injury-plagued seasons (and an All-Pro season and a triumphant Comeback Player of the Year season before that). Berry hasn’t played in the NFL since. I had assumed he retired, but I can’t find any evidence that he has in an official capacity. In fact, I stumbled on an article that said he wanted to play in 2020 after a one-year sabbatical, but either due to Covid concerns or lack of interest from teams, nothing ever came of it. (And it’s not like players who have been out of the league can’t make their way back, as we’ve seenseveraltimes this offseason.)
If Berry’s career is over, then it’s a shame that someone who was an inspiration to so many, and who was a consistently productive player until injuries struck, never got that storybook ending (the Chiefs won the Super Bowl less than a year after parting ways with him).
It’s unfortunately a familiar script in the NFL. Right now, there are quite a few older, highly decorated free agents who are riding that “retired or not?” line. Let’s take a look at five of those well-accomplished vets who may have played their last down in the NFL — and if so, what their biggest football regret might be.
Frank Gore, RB
Age: 38
2020 team: Jets
Last week, Frank Gore — 38 years old according to his birth certificate, but ageless in the eyes of football fans — said he was considering retirement but that his preference was to join a contender. It’s hard to blame him after he spent last season toiling away on the Jets. Though he averaged a career-low 3.5 yards per carry for the league’s worst offense, Gore was their leading rusher with 653 yards, more than 2.5 times the output of anyone else on the team.
Gore, who has exactly 16,000 yards on the ground in his career, is just 726 away from tying Walter Payton for second place on the all-time rushing list. If he retires, he won’t get the chance to climb up to No. 2. Perhaps more importantly to Gore, he would leave the game without a championship. Last year, the 49ers’ all-time leading rusher admitted his greatest regret was not winning a Super Bowl in San Francisco. His only appearance in the big game came during the 2012 season, when he ran for 110 yards and one touchdown against the Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII.
It seems more likely than not that Gore will wait to sign until a) he knows his new team can win and b) they need his services. If that ends up being the 49ers, then that’d be an added bonus:
And if he plays and misses out on the Super Bowl again, maybe, just maybe he can hold on until his son, Southern Miss sophomore Frank Gore Jr., enters the NFL:
Adrian Peterson, RB
Age: 36
2020 team: Lions
Like Gore, Peterson has a long, storied career and is still chasing a championship. Unlike Gore, Peterson, who spent the first decade of his career in Minnesota and the last year in Detroit, hasn’t even appeared in a Super Bowl. He’s played in just five total postseason games and the closest he got was an overtime loss to the Saints in the NFC Championship 11 years ago.
Last season, Peterson led the Lions with 604 rushing yards, putting him at 14,820 yards for his career, fifth-most in NFL history. Peterson thinks he still has what it takes to play at a high level, but he’s also looking to contribute for a winner. In that way, he’ll be competing with Gore: an aging running back who will hold off until a contender needs to add an experienced body to the backfield.
If that situation doesn’t materialize, then this could be it for Peterson, though it doesn’t seem like he’s quite ready to call it quits.
If he does, though, his biggest disappointment might not even be never winning a Super Bowl. Instead, he’s still gunning for Emmitt Smith’s all-time rushing record. It’s a long shot — Peterson needs more than 3,500 yards to catch Smith, and that he continues playing into his mid-30s is a minor miracle considering most running backs are given the Logan’s Run treatment as soon as they hit 30 (or sometimes earlier!). So he might just have to settle for owning the NFL’s single-game rushing record, having the second-most rushing yards in a single season, and being the only non-quarterback to win the MVP award in the last 14 seasons.
Larry Fitzgerald, WR
Age: 37
2020 team: Cardinals
Larry Fitzgerald’s potential retirement has been a topic of discussion for several years now, but this is the furthest we’ve gotten into the offseason without knowing for sure if he’s coming back. Cardinals GM Steve Keim said in March that Fitzgerald was not on any sort of deadline to make a decision, the kind of luxury afforded to a future Hall of Famer who has played for the same franchise all 17 seasons of his career.
It’s possible that Fitzgerald is still weighing his options (including signing with a new team), or that this delay is a clue that he’s ready to start his post-NFL life. And just like Gore and Peterson, Fitzgerald has built a legendary career that is only missing a Super Bowl title. He came agonizingly close, however, during his inimitable playoff run in the 2008 season:
In Super Bowl XLIII against the Steelers, Fitzgerald looked like he had sewn up MVP honors when he grabbed slant pass from Kurt Warner and took it 64 yards to the house for a late lead:
Unfortunately for Fitzgerald, Santonio Holmes snatched an even better touchdown pass with less than a minute remaining to give the Steelers their sixth title. That heartbreaking result was Fitz’s only Super Bowl trip, and despite his postseason heroics seven years later, the Cardinals came up one game short of making it back. Since then, they haven’t even qualified for the playoffs.
Yet Fitzgerald has remained a steady presence with preternaturally good hands — mostly, anyway. Last season was a low point; he tested positive for Covid and recorded career lows in games played (13), receptions (54), receiving yards (409), yards per reception (7.6), and TD catches (1). That’s not the way you want to see Larry Legend go out, especially without a championship to his name. But at least he’ll have left his marks on the NFL record books as the NFL’s all-time second-leading receiver (behind Jerry Rice, obvi) in receptions and yards.
Jason Peters, OL
Age: 39
2020 team: Eagles
Peters isn’t the oldest offensive lineman in the NFL. That’d be Andrew Whitworth, another left tackle who was born a month earlier than Peters. Both have had multiple All-Pro and Pro Bowl selections, both went on injured reserve last season, and both intend to play in 2021. Only Whitworth, who will return to the Rams, has a contract, though.
Peters has signed one-year deals with the Eagles each of the last two seasons, but the two sides appear to have moved on:
The veteran tackle believes he has enough left to offer a new team. Like the players mentioned above, and every single other NFL player in existence, Peters wants to win a Super Bowl. However, Peters actually has a ring — he just didn’t get to play in the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII victory. Two months before a similar fate awaited quarterback Carson Wentz, Peters suffered a season-ending knee injury that also kept him out of the postseason.
While I can’t speak for Peters, I can imagine that winning a Super Bowl but not getting a chance to experience the game right there on the field has to feel bittersweet. It’s not the worst kind of regret; just enough of one that motivates Peters to want to keep playing.
Mitchell Schwartz, OL
Age: 32
2020 team: Chiefs
Mitchell Schwartz is the youngest player on this list, and he’s also the only one to appear in and win a Super Bowl. In that sense, he has the least left to prove. But talk of his possible retirement seemed to come out of nowhere. He’s remained a top-tier right tackle his entire career, and it wasn’t until 2020 when he first missed time due to injury. (The year before, his quite impressive consecutive snaps streak was snapped.)
After he played in just six games last season due to his back injury, the Chiefs released Schwartz in March. No team has picked him up since, which is either a hint that Schwartz is contemplating retirement (back surgery is no joke) or he’s waiting for the right situation (which could be back with Kansas City).
Whether Schwartz chooses to hang up his cleats or not, there probably isn’t much he regrets about his NFL career. Sure, his injury caused him to miss a second straight Super Bowl trip, but his presence alone wouldn’t have saved the Chiefs. Maaaaaybe Patrick Mahomes would’ve been running for his life just a little less against the Bucs considering Schwartz’s performance the previous preseason, but that’s it:
Still, Schwartz has his championship. He was, for a time, the NFL’s ironman. In 2018, he was finally named an All-Pro.
Strangely, what Schwartz is missing is an honor most fans don’t put too much stock in: a Pro Bowl nod. If you think that’s not important to players, then you should ask Mitchell’s brother, Geoff, who has repeatedly said that Pro Bowls selections do matter, because of how history remembers a player and often due to contract incentives. I highly doubt Mitch Schwartz would return to the field in 2021 just to cross that item off his bucket list (that would certainly be a choice!), but if he does retire, please don’t judge his career based on his surprising lack of Pro Bowl appearances.