Retirement From Football
After missing the 2004 season due to a herniated disc, he officially announced his retirement in December 2004 as the team's all-time leading tackler with 1,350 career tackles.
At the press conference to announce Woodson's retirement, Bill Parcells, then head coach of the Cowboys, said: " the kind of guy that makes this profession something that you like to engage in. He's the epitome of a professional. He does epitomize that in every sense. What he did in playing and his approach to the game."
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones added: "For 13 years, was everything you could ask for -- unselfish, reliable, dependable, a team player first and a team leader always. He's a living, breathing example of the saying that character does matter."
During his retirement press conference, Woodson said, "When I put that helmet on, I laid it on the line. Not just for this team, but for everyone here. I laid it on the line every time I put that helmet on. I wanted to win so bad, that nothing else really mattered. The most important thing was giving everything I had each time I stepped out on the field. And I think I did that."
Read more about this topic: Darren Woodson
Famous quotes containing the words retirement and/or football:
“Douglas. Now remains a sweet reversion
We may boldly spend, upon the hope
Of what is to come in.
A comfort of retirement lives in this.
Hotspur. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)
“People stress the violence. Thats the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it theres a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. Theres a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, theres a satisfaction to the game that cant be duplicated. Theres a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)