SAD News: A key Bengals player has announced his retirement due to a health issue
It’s possible that A.J. Green has left the NFL. however, not from supporting the team that selected him in the drawing a decade prior.
“Miranda is like, ‘Now we can cheer for the Bengals again,'” Green remarked on his appreciative wife, who was free of injury concerns. That’s my current squad. I hope those guys prevail. I love Joe (Burrow) and those guys so much. Regarding the Bengals, one thing. They’ll amazingly draft skilled players. They consistently perform well. I’m hoping they can accommodate every boy there.”
The youngest Green, who will turn four soon, is a Bengals fan as well.
Green remarked, “Daddy, you need to go back to the Bengals. Gunnar always tells me that,” one day after he formally announced his retirement.
From Atlanta, he declares one day, “I’m at peace.”
It’s fortunate. I spent twelve years playing. I only participated in two teams. I’m extremely fortunate. My health is with me. For me, the most important thing is that I can leave on my own terms, confident that I completed everything correctly. I could play for a few more years physically, but mentally, it’s harder. You are familiar with me. It was time to give up if I wasn’t totally committed, because otherwise, I would be cheating the game.”
Easton Ace Green, who is six years old, and Gunnar are the guys he doesn’t want to cheat on. Known better as “Easy,”
“We live a pretty hectic lifestyle as professional athletes,” Green stated. I ignored my fatigue and busy schedule and continued to play with them. I never wanted them to believe that Daddy had declined their invitation to play. I do not wish to interrupt them in their time.”
That Easy is so tall that people mistakenly believe he is eight or nine years old, and the fact that he recently scored three touchdowns for his flag football team, which his father coaches, shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. He and Gunnar have now both registered for baseball.
“Just like a couple of years ago, Easy became crazy about sports,” Green stated. “Everyone is familiar with him. Football. Basketball. He adores all the young receivers and is constantly playing Madden. Cooper Kupp. adores Deebo. Jefferson. adores Chase. Burrow, Joe. Joe Mixon.
How about A.J. Green, who in his first three seasons of a career caught more balls than anyone else, around 2013? Or the A.J. Green from around 2017, who in his first seven seasons was the first wide receiver to be selected to the Pro Bowl in 48 seasons of NFL merger play?
The Green guys will soon discover that their father was among the most refined wide receivers to ever play in the NFL and among the most distinguished athletes to ever represent Cincinnati sports. Being true to his nature, he harbors no resentment towards the injuries that prevented him from having two or possibly three seasons with 1,000 yards.
In a debate for the Pro Football Hall of Fame involving players like Julio Jones (13,629), DeAndre Hopkins (11,298), and Davante Adams (9,637), his final career yard total of 10,514 was a formidable figure. As Green points out, however, the electorate will need to examine closely those first seven years, during which he was one of just four players chosen for every Pro Bowl between 2011 and 2017 and one of only twelve to receive such an honor during the Super Bowl era.
“I felt like when I was out there, I was one of the best,” Green stated. “Look at how I was playing in those years; I did get hurt.”
In fact, he amassed 964 yards in 2016, averaging a staggering 96.4 yards across ten games, before suffering a torn hamstring that ended the season and kept him from ever reaching 1,000 yards. That was a 578-yard loss. Subsequently, in 2018, he was averaging 694 yards per game, despite missing nearly the entire season due to a foot injury.
That is a loss of 616 yards. For the whole 2019 season, write in your own number, which was overlooked when he suffered an ankle injury during head coach Zac Taylor’s first training camp drill. That puts him well into the 12–13,000 yard range, surpassing Chad Johnson’s Bengals record of 10,783 yards.
Green described that ankle injury from 2019 as “a freak accident,” adding nothing more. “In this sport where injuries occur at a 100 percent rate, those things do happen. Few athletes never sustain an injury, so I consider myself fortunate to have had the years I did.”
One of them was his final one in 2020 in Cincinnati, where he played with Burrow and Tee Higgins, a rookie wide receiver from Clemson who claimed to have looked up to Green as a child. Green claims that following a hamstring injury sustained during training camp, he wasn’t exactly well then either.
He estimates that he was 70 percent while catching 523 yards, but he enjoyed playing with Tyler Boyd, Burrow, and Higgins—his running partner since 2016.
“I’m really happy for Tee. “That guy is a receiver that ranks #1,” said Green. “Ja’Marr has two for them. Although I always knew Tee would be a fantastic receiver, it’s amazing to watch him play with such assurance and skill. I had always assured people that Burrow would be fantastic.”
Green, Higgins, and Boyd are still corresponding via text. They thought Chase reminded them of a quick A.J. Brown when they drafted him a month after Green left, according to a text Green sent to receivers coach Troy Walters. Green’s history could extend even further. “He’s quick, but he’s not as tall as many of these guys. like an Anqan Boldin on speed. Chase Love.”
