While Chris Borland was listed as being 6-foot, 248 pounds, he played much larger but actually appeared to be much smaller.
Which is why I wondered quite often during the course of his standout rookie season for the San Francisco 49ers last year how long he could physically last in the NFL. The inside linebacker could play at only one speed – all out at all times – lest he get caught by someone bigger moving faster and with more power. And yet, being so undersized, it was obvious his body would not last long playing that way.
Borland made the decision to walk away from the game before his body made it for him. That much we knew when he stunned the NFL by announcing his retirement in March at the age of 24.
But the details behind Borland’s groundbreaking conclusion and what he has endured since? They are presented in an in-depth feature by Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada in ESPN The Magazine.
The authors trailed Borland for the past five months as he not only dealt with the blowback of his decision, but also as he plots a future without football, which he says he still loves but also sees as a “dehumanizing” affair.
“Dehumanizing sounds so extreme,” Borland said, “but when you’re fighting for a football at the bottom of the pile, it is kind of dehumanizing.”
Borland also says football can never be made “safe” as an activity.
“I made a decision a few months ago to walk away from football based on not only what I’d come to learn but also what I’d experienced,” he said. “The game may be safer; you can make an argument about that. My experience over my five years at Wisconsin and my one year in the NFL was that there were times where I couldn’t play the game safely. There are positive measures we can take ... but on a lead play, on a power play, there’s violence.”
Other nuggets in the story ...
The NFL requested Borland take a “random” drug test a month after he retired. “I don’t really trust the NFL,” he said.
Borland initially told the 49ers of his decision to retire via email, to which the team responded by sending him a “bill” for the remainder of his $617,436 signing bonus.
Borland, who led the team in tackles, still owes the Niners more than $300,000 of said bonus after using a performance bonus to pay the first installment back. It is due over the next two years.
He describes in detail the training camp concussion that led to his eventual retirement, a blitz pickup drill in which he collided with fullback Will Tukuafu.
