Buffalo Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander sounded like many NFL players upon their retirement from football as of late.

During the run up to his retirement, Alexander, 36, downplayed his decision. But when the linebacker did open up, he cited his family as a big part of his decision.

He did so again recently on the Jim Rome Show, but also got a little deeper into the physical nature of his choice. Like many before him, his family, and the difficulties of the daily grind just to practice started to catch up to him.

“At this point in my career, I just have to do so much to get ready to get ready,” Alexander explained. “All that was becoming another job to prepare.”

By that, Alexander said that massages, stretching and other things he started to have to do at a very high rate in order to be ready to play on Sunday. In addition, Alexander said toward the end of the 2019 season, he was taking two rest days a week, not just one.

“I’m a guy, obviously everybody in the NFL is talented, but I’m not a guy that’s on the top end of the athletic spectrum. So I’m a guy that has to practice, lift weights, get all my reps, in order to compete at the highest level and be productive and help my teammates,” Alexander said.

“Toward the end of this year, I’d have to take Wednesday and Thursday off just to feel OK to go practice on Friday to feel OK to go play in the game. I felt like I wasn’t giving, or being able to produce my best ball, practicing that way,” Alexander added.

Here’s a full highlight of Alexander’s appearance on the Jim Rome Show: