Colts' Jack Mewhort announces retirement at 26

Stephen Holder | IndyStar

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WESTFIELD, Ind. – Jack Mewhort is a worker.

He’s as cliché as they come. A Rust Belt kid, a favorite son from Toledo, Ohio who grew up to be a Buckeye and went on to become a Colt.

At every stop along the way, whether at St. John’s High School, Ohio State or with the Indianapolis Colts, the common thread was Mewhort’s work ethic. It defined him. And it made him easy to root for.

He didn’t want the glory. He just wanted to block his man into submission, then watch his team win.

But it’s hard to keep working when pain constantly gets in the way. That pain, finally, has gained the upper hand on Mewhort.

Mewhort, 26, announced his retirement from the NFL on Wednesday, shocking the Colts organization and those close to him, according to sources.

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Mewhort’s knee issues during the past two years have been well documented. He ended the past two seasons on injured reserve and has undergone multiple knee operations. Once a projected top-tier interior lineman after a strong start to his career in 2014 and 2015, everything changed for Mewhort when he sustained his first knee injury in 2016. From then on, his career has been reduced to a series of starts and stops due to knee injuries.

On Wednesday, Mewhort decided he no longer wanted to work through the persistent knee pain that has proved inescapable. He informed the team of his decision and began the first chapter of the rest of his life.

“I would like to thank the Irsay family and the entire Colts organization for giving me the opportunity to live a childhood dream,” Mewhort said in a statement released by the Colts. “The fans and the city of Indianapolis have treated me like one of their own, and I am forever grateful. Wearing the Horseshoe was one of the biggest honors I have ever known, and I will always bleed blue.”

It was, perhaps, a decision Mewhort had been contemplating – even though he didn’t previously indicate anything to the organization.

On Saturday, after skipping a practice in a move designed to take some of the load off his knees, Mewhort offered some perspective learned through his recent injury travails.

“When you’re young and you get in the NFL, you think you’re going to play for a million years,” he said, according to WTTV-4. “You think you’re going to do it all and you don’t think about anything else. But I started getting hit by the injury bug, which is a common thing.

“I’ve been through a lot, but it’s nice to have a life outside the stadium or outside the facility that you can go to and kind of separate this from that and make sure that you have other things going on. … You obviously want to succeed, and my job is to play professional football. But I want to be able to find happiness outside of football as well.”

The Colts face an ugly reality after Mewhort’s retirement: He was the last of their 2014 draft picks on the roster. With his departure, the Colts now have no draft picks from the 2013 and 2014 classes. Just two picks, Clayton Geathers and Denzelle Good, remain from the 2015 haul.

But Mewhort’s physical state was such that the Colts were not going to put themselves in a situation where they needed to rely on him despite re-signing him as a free agent in the spring. One source said Mewhort’s physical state during the offseason was so tenuous that it’s doubtful he would have passed any other team’s physical.

“I don’t think anybody was really clamoring to get their hands on Jack Mewhort,” he admitted at the time.

The Colts, having worked to rehab Mewhort during last season, gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Until Wednesday, the decision seemed to be paying off. The Colts were using Mewhort at left tackle in the absence of Anthony Castonzo, who was activated on Wednesday from the physically unable to perform list. The goal was to determine whether Mewhort was a viable swing backup who could fill in at tackle and guard, the latter being his primary position since his rookie season.

It didn’t work out, but Mewhort won’t soon be forgotten in these parts. He started 14 games as a rookie for a team that won its division and advanced to the AFC Championship Game. He was a second-round pick who once offered hope for an embattled offensive line.

But, most of all, he was a teammate. A great one, by all accounts.

“I played with a lot of tough guys during my time in the NFL, but no one was tougher than Jack Mewhort,” former Colts lineman Joe Reitz said. “He is an absolute warrior who gave it 100 percent every snap, every practice, every game. More importantly, he is an even better person off the field. He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever had, and I would bet most everyone you talk to would echo the same. He is a true pro, a man’s man, and a great teammate and friend.”

Worker. Warrior. Friend.

Mother Nature always gets the last word, but those are the things she can’t take away.

IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer contributed to this report.