Quarterback Jake Locker retired from the Tennessee Titans and the NFL on Tuesday.
Locker, the eighth pick of the 2011 NFL Draft, made $12.5 million and played in 30 games in his four seasons. Though he lost his starting job in 2014 and was a free agent, his retirement announcement caught some by surprise.
Locker, 26, said he had lost "the burning desire necessary to play the game for a living" in a statement announcing his retirement.
Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times found Scott Locker, Jake's father, and got an idea of what Jake planned to do in retirement.
Locker lives in Ferndale, Wash., which is 16 miles from the Canadian border. According to Condotta, Locker plans to remodel his house (which he bought from his grandparents in 2011), spend time with his family and spend time at Locker Room Fitness, a local gym he bought with Tampa Bay Buccaneers punter Michael Koenen in 2014.
While his house is being remodeled, Locker is living in his childhood home with his parents, according to Condotta.
Scott Locker also offered Condotta further explanation for his son's retirement.
"For most of us, it would be a thing where you would probably continue to go down the path he was on," Scott Locker said. "But that's the difference between Jake and most people. He's got a way about him that's different.
"There will be a lot of people that will not agree with the decision that he's made. But you're got to be pretty proud of a guy that can stand up and say he's not feeling it anymore and able to walk away from it. It would have been easier to just come back and sign on with a team and play rather than make the tough call to say, 'I'm going to walk away and find myself something that makes me happier than this is, right now, anyway.' "
Sending a message
Nazem Kadri of the Toronto Maple Leafs was scratched for two games by team president Brendan Shanahan on Wednesday, but it wasn't because of an injury.
Kadri, 24, had already sat out Monday's game against the New York Islanders for missing a team meeting the previous day. Kadri said at the time he had slept in.
Kadri sat out Wednesday's game against Buffalo and will miss tonight's game in Calgary. He will be available Saturday when Toronto plays at Vancouver.
"There's more to this, obviously," Shanahan said. "If this was a case of Nazem being 15 minutes late for a meeting one time, yes, then you could probably sweep this under the rug and handle this internally."
The easiest thing to do would be to deal with this in the offseason, Shanahan said.
"But Naz is an important part of our future," he said. "We like Nazem Kadri. His teammates like him. We expect a certain level of professionalism. It's time for him to start making better decisions. There's a history here."
Sports quiz
India withdrew from the 1950 World Cup because FIFA refused to let team members do what?
Answer
Play barefoot.
Sports on 03/13/2015