Tedy Bruschi to retire

Tedy Bruschi, #54, will be announcing his retirement tomorrow morning after 14 years in the NFL, all with the Patriots. NBC Sunday Night Football announcer Al Michaels made the announcement during the Bears/Broncos broadcast and it has been announced that there will be an "important player announcement" tomorrow morning. I'm not as shocked as I thought I'd be, as Bruschi had missed most of camp with an injury and has been playing with the second stringers in preseason games. Perhaps he was on his way to being cut and instead he, along with the organization, decided a graceful retirement was the best way to go. Any way you slice it, Bruschi's contributions and impact on this football team were immeasurable.Tedy Bruschi has been a defensive captain and locker room leader for seven seasons as well as an emotional leader for the team. One of the more inspirational moments was when, after suffering a stroke a few days after his first Pro Bowl following the 2004 season, he returned the following season on October 30, 2005, and totaled 10 tackles and AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors against the Bills. The first play that comes to my mind when I think of Tedy Bruschi is his strip of Dominic Rhodes in the 2004 AFC Divisional play off game. Peyton Manning completed a short pass to Rhodes and Bruschi runs up and just grabs the ball and wins the battle, tearing it out of Rhodes' hands. It showed Bruschi's heart and desire, which is what he used every down of every game he played in. You can watch video of this play and highlights of the game by clicking here. Bruschi's strip of Rhodes comes at about the 2:30 mark.#54 will surely be missed in Foxboro and across Patriot Nation. His election to the Patriots Hall of Fame will soon follow. Best of luck to Tedy Bruschi in his life outside of football!Go Patriots!