Safety Kenny Phillips returned to the NFL last year after sitting out both the 2013 and 2014 seasons and started three early-season games for the Saints before being released.
Those will be the final games of his professional football career. Phillips suffered several knee injuries over the course of a career that started as a Giants first-round pick in 2008 and says that he’s had “enough aches and pains” to know that his body can’t stand up to what’s needed to play the game anymore.
“It wasn’t tough to come to grips with it because physically I can’t,” Phillips said, via 247Sports.com. “It wasn’t like, ‘OK you’re not good enough.’ Physically it hurts to do this and it hurts to do that. It was a like a no-brainer.”
Phillips spent five years with the Giants and was a starter on the team that won the Super Bowl after the 2011 season. He is finishing his sports administration degree at the University of Miami and interning in the football office, which may be a precursor to a move into coaching for the next phase of Phillips’ life.
