During my career, it seemed as if every retired player who visited one of my teams said some variation of the same thing:

“Never take it for granted. What I wouldn’t give to suit up and hear the crowd roar just one more time.”

For some reason, I never thought I would be that guy.

I just assumed that when I walked away, that would be it. No turning back. On to bigger and better things. I had a brash sort of arrogance about it.

I retired after last season, but this preseason the mere glimpse of training camp images on television caused my back and knees to begin aching. Why would I want to go through that again?

Still, any time I made a flippant comment to a former coach or player about not missing playing football, the reply would be something like: “Wait until that first Sunday of the regular season when you’re just watching. And trust me, you will be watching.”