Terron Armstead breaks silence on the brutal details of playing with the knee injury that ultimately spurred retirement from Dolphins

“I’ve been dealing with a knee (injury) since my third year in the league. I didn’t see a practice field like, at all, and not because I didn’t want to or the Dolphins just wanted me to rest. It’s like I literally couldn’t walk. You know, after a game on Sunday, I wouldn’t be able to walk own my own, under my own power, until Wednesday (or) Thursday. So I was only able to play under the pain meds, I couldn’t put any pressure on my knee, so it was like ‘I can’t keep doing that to myself, man’.”

It was no secret that Armstead’s knee has been a central theme amid his struggles to keep playing at a high level and stay on the field. Armstead did disclose that he would need a knee replacement when he announced his decision to retire. But these new details underscore just how hard it was for Armstead to suit up and play.

He alluded to the challenges of playing with it at one point last fall, suggesting that in time, the depths he was going through to suit up would come to light. The time, it seems, is now.

This is the latest example of the nasty underbelly of the game, and it should amplify the respect Armstead commands from football fans as he rides off into the sunset. Especially Saints and Dolphins fans who watched Armstead put his body on the line to play at such a high level through this degree of adversity for so long.

It’s a retirement well earned. And, for whatever comes next for Armstead, here’s hoping it’s a little less taxing on his body for the first half of each week in the fall.