Written by Jamison Hensley at ESPN.com
Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel, a doctoral candidate in applied mathematics, abruptly announced his retirement from football at the age of 26 on Thursday, just before the first full-team practice of training camp.
His decision, which was announced by the Ravens, comes two days after a medical study indicated that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) was found in nearly 99 percent of deceased NFL players’ brains that were donated to scientific research.
A team source said Urschel’s decision was linked to the results of the study.
Coach John Harbaugh said he was surprised when Urschel called him 90 minutes before practice to inform him of his retirement.
“That was out of the blue,” Harbaugh said. “He had been working hard. He was working on his snaps all summer. He was doing a great job. It was definitely a lightning bolt that way.”
Harbaugh said Urschel explained his decision, but he left it up to Urschel to provide those reasons himself.
“He said he’s going to retire from football, [and] that was something that’s been on his mind for quite a while and throughout the offseason,” Harbaugh said. “That’s what he decided to do. We respect John tremendously.”
Urschel is pursuing his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the offseason, focusing on spectral graph theory, numerical linear algebra and machine learning. He was expected to compete for the Ravens’ starting center job in training camp.
In January, Urschel told HBO’s “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel” that his passion for playing football outweighs the risks of suffering head trauma.
“I recognize that this is somewhat irrational, but I am doing it,” Urschel said. “It’s more important to me that I’m able to do the two things I love. I don’t know if people have really done things that I’ve done before. I don’t know if they’ll do it after me. But I enjoy carving out my own path and not listening to what people say I can and I can’t do.”
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