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- Mar 19, 2019
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A neck injury has forced Patriots fullback James Develin to retire from the game at 31. In Tuesday comments to the media, he made it clear that he intends to find a way to give back to the game.
Asked whether he’d consider taking a job with the Patriots, Develin said, “I’m considering any kind of possibility that kind of comes my way. It would be an honor to be able to continue to provide support for the team, albeit in a different way. But I have an innate sense in me that I have to kind of give back to this game that gave me so much. Any kind of capacity that I can do that in is something I’d be interested in doing. . . .
“I’ve been playing for 25 years and I know a lot about the game, I’ve been through a lot of experiences within the game, so I think that there’s a certain level of knowledge that I have that I can pass on to the next generation of players, wherever that may be,” Develin added. “Being able to help people in general is always something that I look onto fondly. Being able to do that and also contribute to the game of football, it’s definitely something that I’m considering.”
It’s still early in the overall planning process for Develin, who made the final decision to retire from playing the game on Monday.
“My injury last year kind of exposed some things that posed a potentially risky situation continuing to play the game of football,” he said. “So that’s really what led to my decision. I just knew that given all of the stuff that we kind of figured out, that it was in my and my family’s best interest to no longer play the game. It was a tough decision, one that took a lot of emotions and a lot of time to kind of talk through with my wife and I, but I’m at solace with the decision that it was made with my family’s best interest in mind.”
Develin said he got the news about the injury “months ago,” but took his time to make a decision, especially with the pandemic turning everything upside down.
“When I kind of got the news that I had the situation going on that I have, it was a tough pill to swallow because I wasn’t really prepared for it,’ Develin said. “I had really no prior knowledge of it. The one thing that really shed some clarity on the situation was my wife was there with my daughter, and so it was just an immediate reminder of what’s important in life. Because had they not been there, my sense of manly pride and me trying to be a tough guy, maybe I would have said, ‘I can play through that. I’ll just tough it out.’ But, really, it was in the best interest of me, my wife, my three kids – it’d be an ignorant thing and a selfish thing to continue to play the game, so I did what was best for my family.”
Develin, who graduated from the Oklahoma City Yard Dogz of the Arena Football League to the Florida Tuskers of the UFL to the Bengals to the Patriots, exits with three Super Bowl rings. If he stays with the Patriots as a coach, he’ll have a chance to add to that total in the coming years.