Philadelphia Eagles' Jatavis Brown Suddenly Retires from NFL at 26

Jatavis Brown recently signed a one-year deal with the Eagles after playing for the Los Angeles Chargers

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Published on August 10, 2020 02:32 PM

Philadelphia Eagles player Jatavis Brown is walking away from the NFL at 26 years old.

According to ESPN, the linebacker recently signed a deal in March that would have paid him a base salary worth nearly $1 million, with $550,000 guaranteed. But on Sunday, the team unexpectedly moved Brown to the reserve/retired list.

Reporter Jeff Skversky of WPVI said Brown did not retire due to coronavirus concerns or symptoms, but he simply "just doesn’t want to play anymore."

The Los Angeles Chargers originally selected Brown in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL Draft out of the University of Akron. While Brown had a "phenomenal" first-year with the team, his success was impeded by injuries over his next few seasons with the team, the Chargers Wire reported.

"After seeing all that he's accomplished don't blame him," one Twitter user said in response to the abrupt retirement. "What else does he have left to prove?

Brown isn't the only recent NFL player to leave the league at an early age.

In January, linebacker Luke Kuechly of the Carolina Panthers retired at age 28 without specifying why he was leaving.

“There’s only one way to play this game since I was a little kid — play fast, play physical and play strong,” Kuechly said in a video posted to the Panthers' Twitter account. “And at this point, I don’t know if I am able to do that anymore. That’s the part that is the most difficult.”

"I think now is the right chance for me to move on,” Kuechly continued in the video. "It makes me sad because I love playing this game — I’ve played it since I was a kid. It’s my favorite thing in the world to do," he continued. "The memories I have from this place and this organization and being on the field with these guys — they’ll never go away."

Former New England Patriots star Rob Gronkowski also shocked NFL fans when he retired at age 29 in March 2019, only to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this offseason once Tom Brady joined the team.

RELATED VIDEO: Rob Gronkowski Is ‘Ready to Put a Show on’ When He Returns to the NFL This Season

Former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck also walked away from the NFL last year at age 29.

"This is not an easy decision. Honestly, it's the hardest decision of my life," he said at the time. "But it is the right decision for me... For the last four years or so, I've been in this cycle of injury, pain, rehab, injury, pain, rehab, and it's been unceasing, unrelenting, both in-season and offseason, and I felt stuck in it. The only way I see out is to no longer play football."