After 11 seasons of football, Patrick Ryan Kerrigan, an American football player who holds the Washington franchise career sack record, announced Friday his retirement from the NFL. This was planned for more than a year as his love of football made it difficult for Kerrigan to decide to quit, even though there were times when the Indiana native wondered whether he could keep going.
Following the Commanders’ playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in early 2021, “Kerrigan trotted back out to an empty FedEx Field, sat on the team bench and took a final glimpse at the stadium he has called ‘home.’ When he returned to FedEx a year later as a Philadelphia Eagle, he relished playing in front of Washington’s fans. And when his body felt ‘nice’ after a couple of months off from training, his mind couldn’t help but wonder about playing some more,” a New York Times journalist wrote.
“[I] was like: ‘Oh, my body feels nice! I can do this again,’” Kerrigan said. “It’s like, well, your body feels nice because you haven’t trained for football in two months, so you got to kind of acknowledge the truth there.”
Kerrigan was forced into retirement by his lingering knee issues. The doctors gave Patrick poor reports on his knee in May 2021, and recommended he call it a career. But while his knee needed him to retire, his mind said otherwise.
Kerrigan was a model player and staple of the Washington franchise. He attended and watched the Saturday training-camp practice as he reflected on his decision and felt at peace with it. But Kerrigan admitted that if he hadn’t received the results he had from medical reports on his knee, and if he could hold out a little stronger in his mind, he would be playing on the field.
“That’s what kind of makes it tough,” he said. “It’s complicated because I still feel like I can but knowing that it’s not a guarantee that I would get a roster spot at the end of camp. Because that was kind of my plan this offseason was to kind of wait throughout training camp and, once rosters started to shake out, hopefully find a good situation. But without that guarantee, to continue to put more stress on my knee and whatnot, it wasn’t worth it.”
Nonetheless, the superstar football player is forever grateful for the team and community he was a part of, the support he received from around the world, and the invaluable experiences he had—and the memories he made—with his team.
Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659266118657x595420659224579200/Ryan%20Kerrigan%20retires%20from%20Washington%20and%20considers%20football%20career%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
Following the Commanders’ playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in early 2021, “Kerrigan trotted back out to an empty FedEx Field, sat on the team bench and took a final glimpse at the stadium he has called ‘home.’ When he returned to FedEx a year later as a Philadelphia Eagle, he relished playing in front of Washington’s fans. And when his body felt ‘nice’ after a couple of months off from training, his mind couldn’t help but wonder about playing some more,” a New York Times journalist wrote.
“[I] was like: ‘Oh, my body feels nice! I can do this again,’” Kerrigan said. “It’s like, well, your body feels nice because you haven’t trained for football in two months, so you got to kind of acknowledge the truth there.”
Kerrigan was forced into retirement by his lingering knee issues. The doctors gave Patrick poor reports on his knee in May 2021, and recommended he call it a career. But while his knee needed him to retire, his mind said otherwise.
Kerrigan was a model player and staple of the Washington franchise. He attended and watched the Saturday training-camp practice as he reflected on his decision and felt at peace with it. But Kerrigan admitted that if he hadn’t received the results he had from medical reports on his knee, and if he could hold out a little stronger in his mind, he would be playing on the field.
“That’s what kind of makes it tough,” he said. “It’s complicated because I still feel like I can but knowing that it’s not a guarantee that I would get a roster spot at the end of camp. Because that was kind of my plan this offseason was to kind of wait throughout training camp and, once rosters started to shake out, hopefully find a good situation. But without that guarantee, to continue to put more stress on my knee and whatnot, it wasn’t worth it.”
Nonetheless, the superstar football player is forever grateful for the team and community he was a part of, the support he received from around the world, and the invaluable experiences he had—and the memories he made—with his team.
Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659266118657x595420659224579200/Ryan%20Kerrigan%20retires%20from%20Washington%20and%20considers%20football%20career%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
