Down 55 pounds since February, former Bills center Eric Wood ponders life after the NFL

Sal Maiorana | Democrat and Chronicle

Show Caption Hide Caption See the unbelievable scene in the Buffalo Bills locker room The Bills celebrate and Kyle Williams talks about his incredible touchdown.

Eric Wood said he's officially retired and contemplating what he's going to do next.

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BATAVIA – If you didn’t know who Eric Wood was, and you saw him Monday morning at Jim Kelly’s celebrity golf tournament, you might have mistaken him for one of the golfers paying for the privilege to play in the 32nd annual charity event.

Wood, who was forced to retire from the Buffalo Bills in February because of a degenerative neck condition, has already dropped about 55 pounds from his playing weight of 300, due mostly to a diet that no longer requires him to load up on carbs so that he's big enough to survive in the trenches.

“Down a few pounds, body feels good,” Wood said before he headed out to play in the tournament. “Can’t play ball, which stinks, and I miss it, and there’s been times this spring where I’ve seen pictures posted and you think, ‘That’s my team,’ but it’s all good.”

Wood said he is not upset about the clunky way his departure from the team was handled. Originally, the press conference in Orchard Park back in February was supposed to announce his injury situation, and then he was going to elicit second opinions on his neck condition before officially announcing his retirement.

“When it got leaked beforehand, it kind of complicated everything, and what it turned into was a retirement deal, which it wasn’t going to be,” he said.

Wood recounted the story of how he found out his career was over, taking the phone call from the Bills’ orthopedist, Dr. Andrew Cappucino, while he was with his wife in the delivery room as she was about to deliver their son.

“It was a very emotional few days, but I’m a fairly optimistic guy, a what’s next guy, so at that point it was just where do we go from here,” he said. “When you get the news you want to get more opinions and you think someone can make it right, but there was no scenario that would make it right.”

Wood said one of the things he will miss most is the camaraderie of a team, and helping the younger players make their adjustment to the NFL, like first-round pick Josh Allen, whom Wood said he met Sunday night at the Adams Mark Hotel in downtown Buffalo, site of the Kelly gala dinner.

“One of the things I will miss is pouring into young guys like him,” said Wood. “He was talking to me about places to live, so that was fun, but I’ll miss pouring into young guys because that’s something that I was passionate about.”

Wood said he believes a formal retirement press conference will be held, but he wasn’t sure when that would take place. Also, he said he isn’t sure if he’ll have a role in the Bills’ organization —— he doesn’t want to coach – but that he’s interested in seeing what his next move will be.

“I’ve been a full-time dad a lot this offseason, and I know I’m not a full-time dad, so we’ll see,” he said.

MAIORANA@DemocratandChronicle.com