Why Frank Ragnow's retirement has not been made official yet, and why he's still listed on the Lions' roster

On June 2nd, the Detroit Lions took a big hit when All-Pro center Frank Ragnow announced on his Instagram that he plans to retire effective immediately. 

A few days later, we got to hear from Lions head coach Dan Campbell on the matter, and we got to see a little bit of social media tribute stuff from the Lions. But here we are on the last day of June, and Ragnow's retirement has not been made official by the league or the Lions. In fact, Ragnow is still listed on the roster. 

This has some fans hoping for the long shot that Ragnow has decided that he's not going to retire and that he's going to stay after all. There is almost complete certainty that this is not the case. 

The reasons why the league has not announced it and the Lions haven't either are that there is a process for retiring in the league, and it's bigger than the player announcing it on their social media. 

For starters, there are contractual things that need to be figured out from the team and league side of things. Ragnow retired before the end of his final contract, and things need to be paid out or negotiated. Then there's pension paperwork. 

Since Ragnow is a vested veteran, he qualifies for the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan. Under this plan, he will receive a pension from the Lions and the NFLPA. That needs to be processed, and this could take some time since Ragnow needs to submit records from injuries and all kinds of other paperwork to the NFLPA. All that needs to be verified. 

The Lions still need to add him to the reserve/retired list. This is why he is still "on the roster" right now. He has not been removed by the Lions yet. It's likely because all the paperwork needs to be finalized by the team, the NFLPA, and the league. 

It may seem as though he's taking up a roster spot right now, but at the end of the day, it's June still, and the Lions are on break. Once the team comes back for camp in a couple of weeks, things will get sorted out roster-wise. 

Something I learned while reading about the retirement process is that the NFL does not consider you to be a retired player until you've gone a full year without playing in the NFL. So Ragnow won't be officially retired by the league until sometime next year.