Ryan Shazier Retirement: I Stopped Being Superman

Following a three-year fight to get fit again, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier has retired from football permanently.

Ryan Shazier (28), who has been working as a coach and scout in Pittsburgh, announced his decision on Wednesday.

He will be remembered as a player who was on the path to being one of the best, who had his career stolen from him.

On the road at Cincinnati in December 2017, Ryan Shazier went down in a seemingly innocuous incident. His collision with WR Josh Malone left his legs motionless, and he required spine stabilization surgery. 

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“Football gave me everything I wanted and more,” Shazier said. 

“It taught me about hard work, dedication. Took me to college and the NFL, it made me money and gave me a life most people could only dream about.

“It’s been over 1,000 days since I got hurt on the field “Shazier added. 

“To lose the game in a way I never envisioned has not been easy. For you to play the game of football the way I did, you convince yourself you’re Superman. That nothing can stop you but then the moment I got hurt I stopped being Superman, and that was difficult to make sense of.

“But the way I look at it, God put us all here for a purpose. For 20 years, he let me play football, and now it’s time for me to do what he wants me to do.”

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Shazier has acted as a mentor for his proposed replacement, 2019 first-round pick Devin Bush. He isn’t ruling out a return to football in a coaching capacity.

“I’m not ever going to cancel out returning to the game,” Shazier said.

“As a player, you’re focused on making the plays,” he said. 

“As a coach, you’re focused on telling guys the situations so they can make plays. With the scouting, we’re trying to find guys that can make plays 10 years down the road. It’s kind of cool because there’s just different aspects of the game, and you’re looking at it in a different perspective.”