Hang up your cleats Trent Green, hang up your cleats and quit.  Last Sunday, quarterbacking a football team like he’s done so many times before, Trent Green found himself in a familiar situation: unconscious. Sustaining his second serious concussion in thirteen months, Green lay motionless on the field for several minutes before being carted away. It was like September 10, 2006 all over again and now it should be all over, again. 

Enough is enough. 

Concussions rate as some of the worst football injuries a player can have. While many are only symptomatic for two or three days, some can have lasting effects. Headaches, sensitivity to sound and light, memory loss, attention problems, dizziness, depression, impaired movements, and dementia are just some of the symptoms that can linger for months and even years. These affect football play but, more importantly, they also affect life.

It’s time for Trent Green to quit while he’s ahead, or at least while he still has a working one. 

Let’s face it: Green’s career is on the decline. It’s only to be expected. He’s 37, he’s been fighting injury, and he’s playing for a team that is winless thus far in the season. Pursuing his football career is like lighting a match and playing with fire: his ability to function is at risk for getting burned.

Green would certainly not be the first NFL quarterback forced out of the game because of repeated concussions. Steve Young and Troy Aikman were both forced out prematurely because of head injury. Young was believed to have had at least seven concussions, while Aikman tipped the scales with ten. If two Hall of Fame quarterbacks had the (foot)balls to retire, Green should too. He’d definitely be in good company.

As far as football goes, Green has had a heck of a career. As a 13-year veteran, he has thrown for over 3,000 yards in a season six times and for over 4,000 yards in a season three times. He also has 157 touchdown passes on his resume. 

But now, it’s time to change fields.

Green is still considered young outside the world of sports. He’s married, he has kids, he’s active in charities, he’s one of the NFL’s true good guys, and he has the majority of his life left to prove it. He has more important things ahead than football; the best is yet to come. 

A Tony Romo quote probably says it best. After flubbing the hold for the winning field goal in the Dallas versus Seattle playoff game last year, he was asked how he would recover. He simply put it in perspective by saying, "If something in sports is the worst thing that ever happens to you, you've lived a pretty good life."

To Trent Green, those words should ring true. In sports, it’s called “playing” for a reason. Simply, the game of football does not parallel the game of life.

Hang up your cleats Trent Green, hang up your cleats and quit.