The drumbeat of Super Bowl week has unfolded as if scripted, with the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks dreaming aloud of hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night after Super Bowl XLVIII, and talk of cold temperatures providing plenty of hot air. In the middle of it all, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie tiptoed into a subject that even his Broncos teammate Peyton Manning, 37 and polished as any player at the podium, stiff-armed aside quickly.
Rodgers-Cromartie uttered the word "retirement" — no shock were it to come from an NFL elder statesman like Manning, but unexpected from the lips of a 27-year-old with a fresh multi-million dollar contract likely waiting at season's end. (He has the luxury of having just earned $5 million this season.) Instead of football, Rodgers-Cromartie was thinking of Bradenton, Fla., where he grew up and where he sees himself one day returning to become a guidance counselor.
"Coming out of college, I gave myself a five-year goal," he said this past week. "If I could just make it five years, I would be all right. Coming from a small school and of course playing six, it has been a long journey and I am weighing my options."
Not 24 hours later he retreated, saying he was wary of leaving the game with his skills intact, but he had already said enough. Most athletes dread leaving the locker room once and for all. Even as bodies and skills erode over time, many cling to the game, trying to wring one more season from their limbs before limping off for good.
Rodgers-Cromartie was a star cornerback and a sprinter and jumper at Lakewood Branch High School and later at Tennessee State. He has a string bean physique — 6-2 and just under 200 pounds, big for his position. He might have been overlooked in the 2008 draft, but formidable speed made him a first-round selection of the Arizona Cardinals.
The notion of exiting the game at the prime of a career, as Rodgers-Cromartie suggested, altered the frequency of the droning noise of Super Bowl conversation and sparked an interesting consideration: What makes an athlete decide to head out the door?
Nancy K. Schlossberg is the author of "Revitalizing Retirement: Reshaping Your Identity, Relationships and Purpose." She says it comes down to a desire for the control that comes with deciding when to retire rather than being forced from an occupation, either by an employer or due to physical limitations.
Priorities can shift quickly. Eric Davis played in the pros for 13 years and estimated his body could have handled more, but after the 2002 season with the Detroit Lions he was more interested in being "Mr. Mom" than an NFL cornerback.
"I wanted to be the car-pool dad," Davis said. "I wanted to go on field trips."
Football players, Schlossberg said, can be reluctant to leave the sport because a change in identity may sever relationships. Once outside the locker room, the ties to former teammates and the public unravel.
It can be unsettling, too, to figure how best to fill the time once devoted to football. What will replace the rush of competition?
Schlossberg, though, said football players are ideal candidates to discover new passions outside the sport because, "we're talking about people who are really committed to their work."
"I think that everyone who is extremely successful at whatever their genre is, is inherently flawed," said Davis. "By that I mean it is a flaw to put your all into one thing. You have to do that to be great at a professional sport. You put your all into so much so that you neglect everything else, be it family, friends — be it yourself at times."
Rodgers-Cromartie is not the only player this season who has contemplated a sudden departure from the game.
In November, John Moffitt, a 27-year-old Broncos teammate announced his retirement after 2½ seasons in the NFL. Moffitt's father, David, said his son lost his passion for football. Riding the bench in Denver, John Moffitt decided to walk away from more than $1 million remaining on his contract in exchange for his health and happiness, his father said.
After retiring, Moffitt bought an English mastiff and is nearing a book deal about his journey. It won't feature a chapter on Sunday's game.
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