Jake Butt, the once-promising tight end whose football career was waylaid by six knee operations, announced his retirement from the NFL on Thursday, saying he could no longer hide the fact that he'd lost his passion for the game he loves.
"Football gave me some of the best times of my life," Butt wrote in a social media post announcing his decision to step away. "Ironically, it also gave me some of my toughest times, which turned out to be the most important. The adversity that I faced in my career gave me some of the biggest opportunities to grow as a man.