That’s the thing: there is no consistent reasoning for retirement among these four players, other than the overarching (and often unspoken) notion that football might eventually destroy their bodies and minds more than it already has. And Worilds, Barnwell notes, had comparatively few injury issues at all at this point. But you see all those former players with CTE on television, or in person, and you can’t help but wonder if you might be among them someday, and you can’t help but ask yourself whether it’s worth the trade-off.
In the end, this is probably a good thing for professional football, at least in the short term. It is a young man’s game for a reason, but in the longer term, it does make you wonder if the NFL can ever stem the tide, as the players themselves become increasingly disposable. What happens if the game continues to be more and more compressed by its own violence? What happens when seeming exceptions like Willis and Worilds and Locker become the norm?
“I think he just thought about it a lot and prayed about it a lot and came to the conclusion that there might be other things out there for him,” Locker’s father Scott told the Seattle Times, “things he can do…to help people and impact some lives.”
This makes perfect sense. There is no reason to play in the NFL if you are not committed to the sacrifices the NFL demands. But at some point, you have to wonder whether the sacrifices might be too much of a burden for anyone to bear.
Michael Weinreb is the author of Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14 Games. You can find him on Twitter @michaelweinreb