John Urschel Announces Retirement from NFL

On Thursday, July 27th, Baltimore Ravens interior offensive lineman John Urschel announced his retirement from the NFL. Urschel, who was entering his fourth season in the NFL, was the most likely candidate to win the starting center spot on Baltimore's offensive line this season. His decision came as a shock to many, as at age 26 Urschel is in the prime of his career, and the announcement of his retirement came very late in the offseason-- according to the Baltimore Ravens' statement on Urschel's retirement, Urschel called head coach John Harbaugh to inform him of his decision before 6:30 AM on the morning of the first full day of training camp practices for the 2017 season.

Urschel is much more than just a football player, and even among NFL fans he was likely as well known for his achievements off the field than those on it. He earned a bachelors degree in Mathematics from Penn State, graduating with a 4.0 GPA, and he's currently a doctoral candidate in Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While at Penn State, he also earned an masters degree and worked as lecturer in the mathematics department, teaching Calculus and Geometry; according to his curriculum vitae, through his time at Penn State and MIT Urschel already has a half-dozen publications to his name. Urschel is also a competitive chess player, and was named to Forbes Magazine's "30 under 30" for outstanding young scientists. All this while also being a team captain and three-year starter at Penn State, as well as contributing to the Ravens offensive line unit for the past three years.

Now, although a lot of major news outlets are claiming that Urschel retired due to concerns about CTE, neither the official statement from the Ravens organization nor Urschel's retirement post on Twitter mention the risk of CTE as a determining factor in Urschel's decision. Urschel and Harbaugh publicly cited three reasons for Urschel's retirement: his desires to invest more time in his coursework and research at MIT, spend more time with his fiancé, and prepare himself for fatherhood (he and his fiancé are expecting his first child in December). Of course, those are all reasons enough to retire from professional football themselves, but the timing of Urschel's decision has left many speculating about its connection to a study published two days prior on Tuesday the 25th, in which researchers at Boston University reported that they'd found evidence of CTE in the brains of 110 out of 111 deceased NFL players.

I don't know that Urschel will ever comment further on why specifically he's choosing to retire, but it's clear that concern over football's long-term ramifications has been in his mind for at least the past few years. In a 2015 article that he wrote for The Player's Tribune, Urschel stated: "Objectively, I shouldn’t [play football]. I have a bright career ahead of me in mathematics. Beyond that, I have the means to make a good living and provide for my family, without playing football. I have no desire to try to accumulate $10 million in the bank; I already have more money in my bank account than I know what to do with.... I play because I love the game...  I’ve fallen in love with the sport of football and the physical contact associated with it." 

But it's clear that something changed in Urschel's mind this week, and his action continue to demonstrate a recent trend of NFL players retiring earlier in their careers, forgoing fame and millions of dollar in order to look out for their future health. Particularly in the case of players like Urschel, who devote large amounts of time and mental energy to passions outside of football, I'm sure that more and more players will continue to walk away from the game before they're forced out of it. At the same time, though, some players such as Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers have expressed their desires to play into their 40s. It'll be interesting to see if more players begin to retire early from football in coming seasons, and what research will continue to come out on CTE.