Richie Incognito is retiring after 12 seasons in the NFL because his body is shutting down from the stress
- NFL offensive lineman Richie Incognito announced on Tuesday that he's retiring from the league after 12 seasons.
- Incognito cited a recent doctor's visit in which he was told his liver and kidneys were not functioning well and that his body was under stress.
- Incognito said his diet was not helping his body function and he decided to call it quits before it's too late.
NFL offensive lineman Richie Incognito announced on Tuesday that he's retiring from the NFL after 12 seasons.
Incognito, who has played on the Buffalo Bills for the past three seasons, told The Buffalo News' Vic Carucci that after a visit to the doctors, he decided to retire because his liver and kidneys are "shutting down."
"I'm done, I'm done, that's it," Incognito told Carucci. "It's been a long career. My liver and kidneys are shutting down. Nothing I can't restore with some balance, but the stress is killing me.
"I went to a doctor's appointment the other day, and they said, 'Listen, the stress is killing you, what are you doing?' And I said, 'Listen, I'm just doing what I love, and that's playing football.' So that's why I'm done."
Incognito told Carucci that his stomach had been bothering him in recent seasons and that his doctors said his diet was not helping his organs function well.
"I don't have major health problems, but I went and saw some specialists down here, and they're like, 'Listen, from your diet - your high-carbohydrate, high-protein diet - your kid kidney's not functioning very well, your liver's not functioning very well. The medical people (said), 'We can fix all this. This is all within order, but if you keep going, you're just going to keep stressing your system out..'"
He added: "I'm very strict on my diet and I've come to understand that it was throwing off some things in my stomach. My stomach was just constantly upset through these last two years -- constipation, basic, little (stuff), right? It's nothing major. And when I got here to Arizona, they were scanning things, and the doctors were going through things and (they said), 'Yeah, your kidney's pretty stressed out, your liver's pretty stressed out.' And it's not debilitating, but it's something where I had to change my diet and hire a chef and start asking myself, 'Hey, do I really want to go back and tax the whole system again.'"
Incognito said the decision is final and even notified the NFL Players Association via Twitter: