Former Georgia wide receiver AJ Green announced his retirement from the NFL on Monday following his 12th season of professional football.
Green was the fourth pick overall in the 2011 NFL draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, with whom he spent 10 seasons with before playing his final two years with the Arizona Cardinals.
Green made the Pro Bowl in each of his first seven years in the league, and he is the only player other than Randy Moss to record 1,000-plus receiving yards in each of his first five seasons. He came up 36 yards short in his sixth year and then topped 1,000 once again in his seventh season.
He finishes his career with 10,514 receiving yards and 70 touchdowns. He’s a seven-time pro-bowler.
Green came to UGA in 2008 as an athletic, lanky, 6-foot-4 superstar out of Summerville, South Carolina, where he excelled in football and basketball. He arrived in Athens as a five-star recruit and as the seventh-ranked player in the nation.
His freshman season was outstanding in Athens. In the fourth game of his college career, against Arizona State, he had eight catches for 159 yards and a touchdown in the 27–10 victory. That was his coming-out party, and he never looked back. Green finished his college career with 2,619 receiving yards, third all-time in Georgia history.