“There’s a lot of different things I could do but football isn’t one of them,” Johnson said when pressed if he’d come back for a contender.
ESPN gave a rare inside look into one of the better guys to ever play the game, both as a person and a player. We see Johnson being totally honest talking about his body breaking down, views on the harsh day-to-day life of NFL players, and his reason for retiring at 30.
Ultimately, his reason for leaving was that he quite simply couldn’t be the player he used to be. ESPN’s Michael Smith, of hit show His & Hers, does an outstanding job of getting the typically reserved Johnson to give something other than team-oriented, filler quotes.