Eric Weddle decided to retire from the NFL after 13 seasons last week, concluding a terrific career with six Pro Bowl appearances and two first-team All-Pro selections. There were several reasons for him leaving the game, including the thought of preparing for another season making him nauseous, but undergoing his first surgery ever also played a role.
Weddle had knee surgery after the 2019 season, which was a first for him. He didn’t want to go through another year of pain and putting himself at further risk of injury – especially after playing all season with loose cartilage in his knee.
He told Albert Breer of the MMQB that he injured his knee in Week 1, and while he thought it’d improve, it didn’t. That injury was on top of the one he suffered to his head in the same game, which left him a bloody mess on the field.
In his first game with the team, at Carolina in September, Weddle broke off cartilage in his knee—after going a dozen NFL seasons without a significant lower leg injury. He thought it might get better; it didn’t. By the end of the year, four pieces of cartilage the size of dimes were floating around in his knee. His meniscus, he says, was fine, which kept the problem from being worse. But it was hard to walk, and there was swelling. So he started thinking.
Weddle said “I know I can still play, and play at a high level, even with the knee,” but he didn’t want to put himself through another year of pain, working out and being away from his family.
“And I realized if my heart’s not in it, my mind’s not in it, then it’s time to go. I always follow my gut and that’s what I’m feeling right now,” he said.
According to Breer, Weddle watched the College Football Playoff national championship game at Sean McVay’s house. The two bounced ideas off each other throughout the night, conjuring up ways to help the Rams improve.
Weddle later decided to retire, but McVay made an attempt to keep the veteran safety in Los Angeles for one more year. Weddle simply wants to be a dad and family man more than he wants to be a football player right now, and he plans to take at least a year off from working to be with his kids and wife back in San Diego.