For a while this NFL offseason, it was looking like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were heading towards a true rebuild next season with the uncertain future of life without legendary quarterback Tom Brady.
Brady was the talk of the NFL offseason after shockingly announcing his retirement, only to backtrack on his decision just a month later and decide to come back for the 2022 NFL season.
With all of the controversy surrounding Brady this offseason, some important news regarding the Buccaneers’ offense slipped through the cracks a bit.
Pro Bowl guard Ali Marpet shocked the NFL world back in February when he announced his retirement at the age of only 28 years old.
We have seen players like Andrew Luck, Chris Borland, and Luke Kuechly retire in the prime of their careers, and their cited reason for retirement all stems from the toll that football can take on a professional football player’s body.
Marpet spoke about his retirement on Wednesday, stating that his health has always been his main concern and is the reason that he decided to retire right in the middle of the prime of his career.
“The biggest reason for me was the physical toll: I didn’t want any more of that. There were some things I wanted to accomplish in my career that I had done,” Marpet told The Guardian. “I loved playing football. But one of my strongest values is health and if I’m really going to live out what’s important to me it doesn’t make sense to keep playing. There are also the unknowns of the head trauma of the NFL and how that plays out. Plus, your joints, the aches and pains that come with surgeries and all that stuff.”
Marpet also cited that the life of an offensive lineman in the NFL is one that he believes puts too much stress on his body with the additional weight needed for the position, causing him to have sleep apnea and hypertension.
“I was eating as clean as possible for a 300-pounder, but having all the weight on your body is bad.”
Football is obviously a sport that causes some real damage to many parts of the human body, and there’s some logic to Marpet leaving when he feels the time is right for that. Marpet has earned around $37 million in his NFL career, so he’ll be well off for the next phase of his life after football.
[Pro Football Talk, The Guardian]