Most Shocking Sports Retirements

Sometimes, athletes choose to walk away from their careers when they still have good years (and money) remaining.

Most Shocking Sports Retirements

Nothing is guaranteed in an athlete’s professional career. You can never predict success, fame or championships. The only guarantee is that an athlete will have to retire and move onto the next chapter of his or her life.

Still, many athlete retirements are unexpected and leave fans and even fellow athletes asking, "Why?"

Sometimes, sudden retirement stems from injuries and mental scar tissue created from serious injuries that require long-term rehabilitation. Other shocking retirements often deal with athletes losing their love for the game or having outside interests that they want to pursue.

Whatever the reason, they decide to walk away. Here are the most surprising retirements in sports history.

25. Darren Collison

Sport: Basketball (NBA)

Career: 2009-19

Stats: 12.5 points per game. 5.0 assists per game. Led NBA in three-point percentage in 2017-18.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: Darren Collison was going to be one of the top free-agent point guards in the 2019 offseason.

He earned over $40 million over the course of his career and was slated to get a raise over the $10 million he made in the 2018-19 season.

But he announced his retirement at 31 years old, on the eve of free agency starting.

Collison retired to focus on his faith. He is a devout Jehovah’s Witness.

He plans to remain involved in basketball by helping train current NBA players like Lonzo Ball.

24. Mike Mussina

Sport: Baseball (MLB )

Career: 1991-2008

Stats: 270-153 record. 2,813 strikeouts. Seven-time Gold Glove winner.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: A 20-win season eluded Mike Mussina through most of his Hall of Fame career. He won at least 18 games in a season five times, but that "20-game winner" title was always out of his reach — until his final season.

At the age of 39 in 2008, Mussina reached 20 wins, finished sixth in Cy Young voting and won his seventh Gold Glove. Most people figured he would return at the age of 40, but Mussina called it a career with his goal reached.

"I don’t think there was ever a point where I looked around and said, ‘You know what? I’m going to change my mind," Mussina said in 2008, when he announced his retirement. “I just felt so good about the season, the way it was going, and enjoying it and not getting caught up in the bad times. It was like the last year of high school. You know it’s going to end, and you just enjoy the ride.”

Today, Mussina enjoys coaching the high school basketball team in his hometown of Montoursville, Pennsylvania, and giving back to his community.

23. Robert Smith

Sport: Football (NFL)

Career: 1993-2000

Stats: Two-time Pro Bowler. 6,818 rushing yards. All-time leader in average yards per touchdown run.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: From 1997 to 2000, only five NFL players had more rushing yards than Robert Smith, who also made two Pro Bowls over that span.

But despite being 28 years old and coming off a 1,500-yard season, Smith retired prior to the 2001 season via email.

He said he valued a normal, pain-free life over the millions of dollars he could have made as a free agent.

Smith had played all 16 games in 2000 for the only time in his eight-year career and still needed to have knee surgery afterward. He knew his knee wasn’t going to get better by playing football so he walked away.

"I got out because I didn’t want to be a 45-year-old knee-replacement guy, and that’s what I would have been," Smith said in 2015.

Now, Smith is a college football analyst for Fox Sports and the Big Ten Network.

22. Brad Daugherty

Sport: Basketball (NBA)

Career: 1986-94

Stats: 19.0 points per game. 9.5 rebounds per game. Five-time All-Star.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: Brad Daugherty was a walking double-double for his eight NBA seasons and seemed destined for the Hall of Fame.

He was a 20-10 guy during his last four seasons and also was one of the best passing big men of his era and posted nearly four assists per game.

But a debilitating back injury kept Daugherty on the shelf for two-and-a-half years, and his last NBA game came at the age of 28.

Even though his career was cut short, Daugherty always kept a great perspective on how basketball fits into his life.

"I can do anything anyone else can. I take the kids to T-ball. I just can't pass the NBA physical," Daugherty said when his jersey was retired in 1997. "I don't feel cheated one bit. Unfortunate things happen to people every day. It's not catastrophic. It's disheartening to a certain extent, but you move on."

These days, Daugherty is NBA and college basketball analyst and co-owner of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team JTG Daugherty Racing.

21. Tiki Barber

Sport: Football (NFL)

Career: 1997-2006

Stats: 10,449 rushing yards. 586 receptions. Three-time Pro Bowler.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: Most retirements are announced after a season has concluded since no team wants the distraction of a player being asked about retirement during the season.

But Tiki Barber did his own thing during the middle of the 2006 season by announcing he would retire at season’s end.

That was despite Barber coming off the best year of his career and having an equally amazing season in 2006.

Neither the New York Giants fans nor his teammates liked the fact that Barber was taking the spotlight off the team and putting it on himself, and it turned out his retirement may have come a season too early.

The following year, the Giants upset the undefeated Patriots to win the Super Bowl, which was the one goal that eluded Barber his whole career.

After his playing days, Barber got into national media. He joined "The Today Show" on NBC as a correspondent and served as a football analyst on "Football Night in America" and "Sunday Night Football," as well as publishing some books.

20. Ken Griffey Jr.

Sport: Baseball (MLB)

Career: 1989-2010

Stats: 630 home runs. 1997 NL MVP. 13-time All-Star. 10-time Gold Glove winner.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: No one would argue that Ken Griffey Jr. was on his last legs during the 2010 season, but the details of his retirement are what’s so shocking.

The 40-year-old legend was called on to pinch-hit during a game but was nowhere to be found in the dugout. Until two Mariners teammates found him in the clubhouse taking a nap during the game.

The ensuing Napgate embarrassed Griffey, and a few weeks later, Griffey abruptly retired, packed his bags and drove cross-country from Seattle to his home in Florida.

Griffey would later confirm that he retired to avoid being a distraction for the rest of the team.

There were no hard feelings. A few years after his retirement, the Mariners hired Griffey as a special consultant to the front office. He also was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame, Mariners Hall of Fame and Baseball Hall of Fames.

19. Ricky Williams

Sport: Football (NFL)

Career: 1999-2003, 2005, 2007-11

Stats: 6,354 rushing yards. One-time rushing champion. One-time first-team All-Pro.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: While with the Miami Dolphins, Ricky Williams led the NFL in rushing attempts in both 2002 and 2003. He was just the fourth player since the merger to lead in consecutive years.

But all of that pounding on his body led to him using marijuana, which then led to him failing a drug test. Instead of giving up the drug and facing a suspension, Williams elected to retire at the age of 27.

NFL fans were shocked and Williams’ Dolphins teammates were disgusted and labeled his decision selfish.

And even though Williams returned to the NFL, he never regretted walking away because it allowed his body to heal. And, in his words, he was able to "find himself" outside of football.

After his playing days, he coached college football and today is a football analyst for the Longhorn Network on ESPN.

18. Sandy Koufax

Sport: Baseball (MLB)

Career: 1955-66

Stats: 165-87 career record. 2.76 ERA. 1963 NL MVP. Three-time Cy Young winner.

Championships: 3 (1959, 1963, 1965)

Bottom line: Just days before the 1966 season, the Dodgers' team doctor told Sandy Koufax that he needed to retire — his arm couldn’t take another season.

Koufax took the advice but kept it to himself and went out and had the best season of his career that year. He posted the best ERA of his career, established a new career high in wins and won the Cy Young for the third time in four years. You would never know that Koufax was ailing, but he had arthritis in his arm and also previously dealt with hemorrhaging.

Six weeks after the World Series ended, Koufax gave into the doctor’s advice and announced his retirement at the age of 30. He cited that he had taken far too many pills and shots in his career to remedy his arm, but that he also didn’t want to permanently disable himself.

Today, Koufax is 83 and an advisory board member for the Baseball Assistance Team, a nonprofit organization that helps former major league, minor league, and Negro League players with financial and medical issues.

17. Mark Spitz

Sport: Swimming

Career: 1965-72

Stats: Nine-time Olympic gold medalist. 11-time Olympic medalist. Three-time Swimmer of the Year.

Bottom line: Most people are just starting their professional careers at 22 years old, but Mark Spitz’s career came to an end at that age.

After the 1972 Olympics, in which Spitz won seven gold medals, he retired with plans to go to dental school. But he later shelved those plans and went into a film and TV career while the spotlight around him was still shining brightly.

Once those offers and his endorsements started to fade away, Spitz tried to return to the pool for the 1992 Olympics at the age of 41 in 1991. However, he did not meet the qualifying times and never even made it to the Olympic trials.

In his post-Olympic transition, he became a businessman and a motivational speaker.

16. Ryne Sandberg

Sport: Baseball (MLB)

Career: 1981-94, 1996-97

Stats: 1984 NL MVP. 10-time All-Star. Nine-time Gold Glove winner.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: In 1993, Ryne Sandberg hit over .300 and made his 10th straight All-Star Game. But less than one year after playing in that game, he retired in the middle of the 1994 season.

Sandberg was struggling with a career-low average of .238, and he was also unhappy with the direction of the Cubs under general manager Larry Himes.

"I quit because I didn't like my job anymore," said Sandberg.

It turns out that just weeks after Sandberg retired, Holmes was fired, and suddenly Sandberg was again intrigued with the idea of playing baseball again. He sat out the entire 1995 season but came out of retirement in 1996 to play two more seasons with the Cubs.

After his playing days, he managed minor league baseball and had a two-year stint as the Philadelphia Phillies skipper from 2013 to 2015. In 2016, the Cubs hired him as a goodwill ambassador for the team.

He also has a charity foundation called Ryno Kid Care that helps children with serious illnesses.

15. Calvin Johnson

Sport: Football (NFL)

Career: 2007-15

Stats: Six-time Pro Bowler. 83 receiving touchdowns. Most receiving yards in a single season (2012).

Championships: 0

Bottom line: Calvin Johnson was built like a comic book character and was aptly nicknamed "Megatron, but he had a broken body after his nine-year NFL career.

That was the main reason he retired at the age of 30, thus ending a six-year string of Pro Bowl selections.

He had a finger injury that he described as bone-on-bone, and Johnson further articulated why he walked away from the game while still in his prime.

"The thing I don't miss is waking up in the morning, hurting, the grind of the game," Johnson said. "I got chronic stuff that everybody has when they're done playing football for any length of time. So, the good thing is I'm able to walk. I feel good. I'm able to spend more time with the fam. I'm able to chill. I don't have to go out and run three miles every day in practice, you know what I'm saying. Goodness gracious."

In 2016, Johnson married his longtime girlfriend, Brittney McNorton. Today, he and his business partner, former Lions guard Rob Sims, are working in the cannabis industry in Michigan and plan to launch cannabis facilities across the state.

Johnson also is partnering with Harvard University to study the effects of cannabis on CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and pain management.

14. Kirby Puckett

Sport: Baseball (MLB)

Career: 1984-95

Stats: .318 batting average. 10-time All-Star. Six-time Gold Glove winner.

Championships: 2 (1987, 1991)

Bottom line: Even at 35 years old, Kirby Puckett was still at the top of his game in 1995. He hit .314 with 23 homers and 99 RBI in a strike-shortened season and looked to continue his Hall of Fame play in 1996.

However, despite a hot start in spring training, one morning Puckett woke up with blurry vision that would later be diagnosed as glaucoma. It was in his left eye ,and for a right-handed hitter like Puckett, that was the more important eye and would have greatly affected his ability at the plate.

Several surgeries later and minimal improvement, Puckett was forced to retire at the age of 36.

In 2006, Puckett died at the age of 45 after suffering a massive stroke. The official cause of death was cerebral hemorrhage due to hypertension.

13. Rocky Marciano

Sport: Boxing

Career: 1947-55

Stats: 49-0 (43 KO). Only heavyweight to retire undefeated as champion. 87.76 percent knockout percentage.

Championships: One-time heavyweight champion (1952-56)

Bottom line: Unlike many others in his profession, Rocky Marciano knew when it was time to walk away even though his retirement was surprising.

At 32 years old, Marciano had a 49-0 record, and since everyone likes nice, round numbers, they just assumed he would aim for win No. 50.

But Marciano instead chose to walk away from the ring to spend more time with his wife and 3-year-old daughter.

There were many attempts to get Marciano to unretire, but he had seen many boxers, including his idol Joe Louis, have failed comeback attempts.

"If Joe Louis couldn't make a successful comeback, I'm not going to attempt it," said Marciano, who made an estimated $1.7 million in his boxing career.

After his boxing days, Marciano got into television, boxing commentating and other businesses. He died in a plane crash in 1969, a day before his 46th birthday.

12. Martina Hingis

Sport: Tennis

Career: 1994-2003 , 2005-17

Stats: Five-time Grand Slam champion. Nine-time doubles Grand Slam champion. 1997 WTA Player of the Year.

Bottom line: Before the Williams sisters burst on the scene, Martina Hingis was the prodigy of women’s tennis. She won five Grand Slams before turning 20 years old.

But injuries beset her from 2001 to 2003, which took away her joy of playing the game. Thus, she decided to retire at 22 years old, even though she was the highest-earning female athlete every year from 199 to 2001.

After a two-year break from the game, Hingis unretired in 2005 but would later retire again after a failed drug test.

She eventually came back yet again but retired for good (we think) in 2017.

11. Jackie Robinson

Sport: Baseball (MLB)

Career: 1947-56

Stats: Broke MLB’s color barrier. 1949 NL MVP. .311 batting average. Six-time All-Star.

Championships: 1 (1955)

Bottom line: The beginning of Jackie Robinson’s Major League Baseball career has been well-documented as he became the first black player to play in the big leagues in the modern era.

But the end of his major league career is also noteworthy. His retirement was so surprising that his own team didn’t even know about it and tried to trade him when he was already retired.

After the 1956 season, Robinson decided to retire to become an executive for a New York coffee company. He also had sold the exclusive rights of his retirement story to a magazine so it was to be revealed there instead of through the Dodgers.

But since the Dodgers were unaware of Robinson’s decision, they tried trading him for a journeyman pitcher and some cash. When it finally came to light that Robinson was retired, the trade was voided.

Following his playing days, Robinson became the first black MLB television analyst and first black executive for a major American corporation, Chock full o'Nuts. In addition, he helped create an African-American-owned financial institution in Harlem, New York, called the Freedom National Bank.

Robinson died of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of 53. After his death, Robinson was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom for his lifetime achievements.

10. Vontae Davis

Sport: Football (NFL)

Career: 2009-18

Stats: Two-time Pro Bowler. 22 interceptions. 409 tackles.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: Most players retire after a season while some, noticing they don’t have it anymore, choose to retire after a game. But Vontae Davis takes the cake by becoming the only known player to retire during a game.

Davis signed a $5 million contract with the Buffalo Bills prior to the 2018 season and was a healthy scratch for Week 1. He was active for Week 2, and after playing 22 snaps, he removed himself from the game and told the coaching staff he was done.

The Bills just assumed he was maybe hurt and done for the game, but Davis walked to the locker room, took off his jersey and drove home. He was blasted in Buffalo and nationally for quitting on the team, but Davis says he has no regrets on his mid-game retirement.

"Most people, when I did what I did, they thought I was literally going insane or something," he says. "But I was actually fine. I was totally fine."

Davis has no plans to return to football. He is now CEO of a wellness spa that will be opening soon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

9. Jeff King

Sport: Baseball (MLB)

Career: 1989-99

Stats: .256 batting average. 154 home runs. 709 RBI.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: Jeff King’s case is an interesting one because he’s probably the worst athlete on this list and was never a star. But his retirement is so shocking that he deserves recognition.

After averaging 27 home runs and 105 RBI from 1996 to 1998, King abruptly retired just weeks into the 1999 season despite being on a modest six-game hit streak.

King reportedly only played baseball for the money and disliked the game so much that he walked away the day after his pension with MLB fully vested.

He retired to a ranch in Montana, and years later, he admitted that he quit because his heart wasn’t in the game anymore.

8. Barry Sanders

Sport: Football (NFL)

Career: 1989-98

Stats: 15,269 rushing yards. 10-time Pro Bowler. 1997 NFL MVP. Most games with 150+ rushing yards.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: In 1999, Barry Sanders was 1,457 yards short of Walter Payton’s all-time rushing record.

Becoming the new rushing king seemed to be a formality for Sanders, who had averaged over 1,500 yards throughout his 10-year career.

But just days before training camp, Sanders announced his retirement via fax to his hometown newspaper.

Sanders had lost his passion for the game and said that his desire to leave football was greater than his desire to keep playing.

Being on a perennial loser like the Lions had lots to do with that as one year later Sanders asked for his release or for a trade from Detroit, clearly indicating that he had the desire to continue playing but just not for the Lions.

Neither of those transactions happened, so the sports world was robbed of a couple more years of witnessing one of the most exciting players in NFL history.

In retirement, Sanders has become an ambassador for the Lions.

7. Bjorn Borg

Sport: Tennis

Career: 1973-83

Stats: Six-time French Open winner. Five-time Wimbledon winner. Five-time ATP Player of the Year.

Bottom line: Burnout is a common thing among athletes in their teens and 20s, and it’s something that even affects those getting paid millions of dollars to compete.

Bjorn Borg won 11 Grand Slam championships by the age of 25 but left the sport at the age of 26.

He was feeling the pressure of being the biggest tennis star in the world and simply didn’t enjoy the sport as much as he used to.

Eight years after retiring, Borg attempted a comeback at the age of 35. It did not go well. He didn’t win a single set in his first nine matches and went 0-12 overall.

He later joined tennis’ Champions Tour and then became a coach for Team Europe during the Laver Cup.

6. Andrew Luck

Sport: Football (NFL)

Career: 2011-19

Stats: Four-time Pro Bowler. 2018 Comeback Player of the Year. 171 passing touchdowns.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: All it takes is one injury to physically and mentally scar you, and that’s what happened to Andrew Luck with his 2017 shoulder injury.

The setback robbed him of the entire season and never escaped him even after the 2018 season, which was the best of his career.

So when a lingering calf injury affected him during the 2019 offseason, Luck said he didn’t want to go through the same cycle of pain and rehab so he called it quits a month shy of his 30th birthday.

Some blasted his decision and called him a quitter while others commended him for being brave enough to walk away.

Luck is young enough to take a couple of years off and come back, and the Colts would surely welcome him back, but he seems set on moving onto the next chapter of his life.

Whether that's spending time with his family, pursuing another job that interests him, Luck, who made $90 million in the NFL and graduated with an architectural degree from Stanford, has options.

5. Jim Brown

Sport: Football (NFL)

Career: 1957-65

Stats: 12,312 rushing yards. 106 rushing touchdowns. Eight-time first-team All-Pro. Three-time NFL MVP. All-time leader in rushing yards per game.

Championships: 1 (1964)

Bottom line: In 1965, Jim Brown was the NFL MVP and led the league in rushing as his Browns team advanced to the NFL Championship Game.

The following offseason, Brown flew to England to film a movie and was given an ultimatum by Browns owner Art Modell — either return to the team in time for training camp or risk being fined.

Brown didn’t like 1) being given an ultimatum and 2) putting his team in a bad position, so he elected to retire to eliminate the conflict of interest.

The football world was stunned by Brown walking away with his last game coming at 29 years old. But Brown already had one foot out of the door with his acting career and said he was "no longer preparing mentally for football."

Brown never entertained an NFL comeback aside from a brief flirt with the Raiders in 1983 when he was 47 years old.

The 83-year-old has slowed down a little, but he still is giving back to the community with the Amer-I-Can Foundation for Social Change, Inc., which he founded in 1988.

4. Lou Gehrig

Sport: Baseball (MLB)

Career: 1923-39

Stats: .340 batting average. 493 home runs. Three-time AL home run champion. Two-time AL MVP.

Championships: 6 (1927-28, 1932, 1936-38)

Bottom line: The man with perhaps the most famous retirement speech in sports history had an unexplained loss of ability in the weeks before the speech.

After hitting 29 home runs in the 1938 season, Lou Gehrig could barely hit the ball out of the infield a year later. He voluntarily removed himself from the Yankees' lineup, thus ending his record games streak, after playing just eight games in the 1939 season.

Gehrig underwent multiple tests and was finally diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. One of the symptoms is rapidly increasing paralysis, so when Gehrig was diagnosed, he knew his career was over.

Two weeks after the diagnosis of ALS, which would also become known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, the slugger delivered his retirement speech on the July 4, 1939.

Gehrig died in 1941, a few weeks shy of his 38th birthday.

3. Michael Jordan

Sport: Basketball (NBA)

Career: 1984-93, 1994-98, 2001-03

Stats: Three-time NBA MVP. Three-time Finals MVP. Seven-time scoring champion. Eight-time All-Star. 32.3 scoring average, highest in NBA history.

Championships: 3 (1991-93)

Bottom line: Michael Jordan had three retirements. The last one was expected, the middle one was somewhat expected and the first one was completely out of left field ... or rather right field.

After winning his third straight NBA championship with the Chicago Bulls, Jordan faced mounting scrutiny, and the murder of his father played a part in Jordan losing his love for the game of basketball.

Jordan retired a month before the Bulls’ 93-94 season and announced his intentions to play baseball four months later. Both of those moves were shocking. No one could fathom why the greatest basketball player in the world would give up what he was best at in order to try something professionally he hadn’t played since he was a kid.

But Jordan’s time on the diamond would be short-lived. He played just the 1994 season for one of the White Sox minor league affiliates. The strike hit baseball later that year and played a part in Jordan returning to the hardwood in early 1995.

He won another three championships with the Bulls, then finished his NBA playing two seasons with the Washington Wizard.

After his playing days, Jordan became an NBA owner, first buying a minority stake in the Bobcats in 2006 and then taking control of basketball operations. Now, he is majority owner of the team, which changed its name to Hornets.

2. Pat Tillman

Sport: Football (NFL)

Career: 1998-2001

Stats: 340 career tackles. 3 interceptions. 2.5 sacks.

Championships: 0

Bottom line: Many surprise retirements have to do with injuries or a player losing love for the game, but Pat Tillman’s decision to retire had to do with patriotism.

After the 9/11 attacks, Tillman finished out the last 15 games of the 2001 NFL regular season and became a free agent. The Arizona Cardinals offered him a $3.6 million contract, but Tillman turned it down to enlist in the Army Rangers.

Pat and his younger brother Kevin completed basic training together and were deployed to the Middle East.

In 2004, Tillman was killed by friendly fire and became the first NFL player to be killed in combat since 1970.

He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star Medal and Purple Heart Medal.

1. Magic Johnson

Sport: Basketball (NBA)

Career: 1979-91, 1995-96

Stats: Three-time MVP. Three-time Finals MVP. All-time leader in assists per game. 9,921 career assists.

Championships: 5 (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987-88)

Bottom line: Magic Johnson was still on top of his game in 1991, just coming off an NBA Finals loss to the Chicago Bulls when he shockingly announced his retirement.

Of course, the retirement had nothing to do with diminishing skills or a lack of love for the game. It dealt with Johnson acquiring the HIV virus, which showed up on a routine physical prior to the season.

The virus was still pretty unknown back then, and many fellow NBA players said they would have been hesitant to compete against someone with the virus.

Johnson came back for the 1992 All-Star Game three months later and then played for the Dream Team in the Summer Olympics, but he didn't make his NBA return until four years later.

Johnson later revealed that he wished he wouldn’t have retired back in 1991 if he was more knowledgeable about the virus.

After his playing days, Johnson has become a successful businessman and entrepreneur. He also has stayed involved in sports over the years, doing basketball television work as an analyst, serving as a sports team executive for the Lakers and being part of the ownership group for the Los Angeles Dodgers.