Fine, here's your answer.
Because he had one year left on his deal worth millions, playing for a team that has an excellent chance to go to, and win, another SB. Because to my knowledge (as of yesterday) he was healthy. Because he just came off a great year, and its not too far fetched to think he could have one more.
So no, as of yesterday, his retirement was still a surprise to me. I thought/hoped that he would play one final year. As for your reasoning, many O-linemen play beyond 33. He wasnt a RB.
Hope this answers your question :bricks:
First of all, there's a big difference between saying that something doesn't make "sense" (as you did in your OP) and that something is a "surprise," as you say above. If you had said that in your post, I wouldn't have commented; I was "surprised" as well. To dredge up that logic course we all hated in school, something that doesn't make sense will always surprise us, but something that surprises us may or may not make sense. I was replying to your statement that his retirement only made "sense" when you learned of his battle with Crohn's disease.
I take your point, but I'm afraid I still take a different view than you do. I posted a couple of replies above to Gronkandez and Tunescribe where I tried to explain my perspective. Here they are.
to Gronk:
"I read that [
where Matt said that Crohn's was a "factor" in his decision] as well (while he acknowledged it was a factor, he also said that it wasn't the primary reason for his decision).*
"But, even if it had been the primary reason, it still wouldn't change my point, which was that Light's retirement made "sense" even without yesterday's revelation. He isn't the only athlete to retire at the top of his game and leave money on the table because he's taking a long term view on the rest of his life."
and
to Tune
"Where I'm coming from is that I think the awareness that is beginning to grow in the NFL of the long term impact of head trauma will start to enter into these decisions, even if someone has not been diagnosed with a "concussion" or series of concussions. The science around concussions is pretty undeveloped to the point where the line is blurry between a concussion and serious head trauma that doesn't rise to today's technical definition thereof.
"I think we're going to see more and more guys who have had great careers hang it up in their early-mid thirties after 10--12 seasons.
"It used to be that all the attention was on orthopedic deficits of NFL players in middle age. I personally know a guy who played serious College football (LB) and then basically kicked around a handful of NFL teams for a few seasons before going back to school for a grad degree; he was starting to have trouble with his knees even in his early thirties. Today, I can run faster and am more flexible than he is, even though he once played in the storied NFL.
"Now, guys are becoming aware that there's a whole other set of issues around cognitive and mental deficits that are lot murkier and could have a lot more serious effects on the quality of their lives when they're 50 or so."
