Long before Dwight Freeney joined up with the Falcons, he was a teammate of Peyton Manning’s in Indianapolis and it wasn’t hard to think of the way Manning ended his playing career while listening to Freeney at Super Bowl Opening Night in Houston on Monday.
Freeney will end his 15th season when the final second comes off the clock in Super Bowl LI and he said that he’s given thought to retiring after the last few seasons. He said he came particularly close last year when he remained unsigned as the season moved into October, but ultimately got a call from the Cardinals and then signed with the Falcons last August.
Freeney will be giving it thought again this offseason and said Monday that he didn’t know if winning on Sunday would be enough to call it a career.
“I always say ‘After the year is done,’” Freeney said. “You gotta give it a couple months to let things die down, let the emotion of whatever’s happening die down a little bit so you can make the best decision for you and your family. Sometimes guys make those decisions right when they lose. Sometimes they rush decisions when they win. I like to take all that emotion out and make that decision when it comes.”
Freeney’s teammates weren’t short on emotion about the veteran. Linebacker Paul Worrilow said that he learned “how to be a teammate and help other teammates” from Freeney over the course of the year and rookie linebacker Deion Jones said Freeney’s taught him to “leave no stone unturned” in the effort to be a better player.
Defensive end Tyson Jackson said there wasn’t “enough time in the day” to say what he’s learned from Freeney this year and that it would be a “fairytale ending” to help send him off into the sunset. Jones agreed “that’s the plan” for a player who could take a second Super Bowl ring and walk away like his old teammate Manning did a year ago.