Former Lions, Texans Safety Glover Quin Announces Retirement From NFL

Glover Quin with the Lions in 2014 (Pete Sheffield/Wikipedia)

Safety Glover Quin is hanging up his cleats after 10 NFL seasons.

Quin, 33, played the last six seasons for the Detroit Lions after leaving the Houston Texans, the team that drafted him during the 2013 NFL free agency period. In Quin’s six seasons with the Lions, he started every game for the Lions and earned a spot in the Pro Bowl in 2014 as well as making second-team All-Pro. Quin finishes his career with the Lions second all-time in tackles for a defensive back with 423.

Michael Rothstein

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News: Lions safety Glover Quin tells me he’s ‘walking away’ after 10 NFL seasons. So he’s retiring. https://global.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/27152160 …

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7:02 AM – Jul 9, 2019

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Between playing for the Texans and the Lions, Quin started 156 out of a possible 159 games, including starting his final 148 games in a row. Overall, Quin finishes his career with 737 career tackles, 24 interceptions, 85 passes defended, 10 forced fumbles, four sacks, and two defensive touchdowns.

“Playing professional sports was always a dream of mine. Football was the route I chose and God blessed me to be able to persevere through all the hardships and play 10 years in the NFL,” Quin wrote in a text message to ESPN. “I’m so thankful for the opportunity I had to play in the NFL with such great players and two great organizations.”

He continued: “Football was never who I was as a person. It was always what I had done. I wanted to use football as a stepping stone into the rest of my life and not let football be my life. I always only wanted to play for 10 years. Said if I was able to walk off the field after the last game in Year 10, it would be really hard for me to walk back on. I’m young, I’m healthy and I got a lot of life to live. So I’m walking away from the game of football.”

Fellow Lions safety Quandre Diggs said about Quin that, “I might not be a good safety if GQ wasn’t here,” Diggs told ESPN in 2018. “Just put it like that. He taught me the ropes. I watched everything he did when I played nickel because I always knew that it was going to be the transition for me.” Diggs made the Pro Bowl as an alternate last season.