As time goes on and the NFL lockout lingers, Atlanta Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez gets closer to officially retiring from the NFL.
Gonzalez has acknowledged that if the 2011 season is wiped out there’s a good chance he’s played his final NFL game.
“That would be devastating because I don’t want to go out like that,” Gonzalez said Tuesday in a sit down with Rich Eisen on “NFL Total Access.”
Gonzalez doesn’t know how well his body would do without a season of football.
“That would be the only reason I would more than likely not come back,” Gonzalez said. “If we miss the whole season and I have to sit out a year, I just think, at 35, sitting out a whole year of football and waiting for it to come back, I just don’t know if my body could. I just want to be smart about it.”
After the Falcons were eliminated from the playoffs this past season by the Green Bay Packers, Gonzalez thought about retirement. But he ended up deciding to come back for another season.
Follow PFZ on Twitter @ProFootballZone“We got a good football team, that’s the first reason,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a great opportunity to go out there and handle some unfinished business.”