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Ryan Fitzpatrick has finally called time on his 17-year NFL career, which saw him play for nine different teams. Fans will miss the man they commonly know as "FitzMagic" and his ability to produce the incredible and unexpected.
He was drafted by the St. Louis Rams back in 2005 and bounced around the league as a starter for a time, then a back-up, and this was a constant theme for his career. Now, however, he faces a different challenge: life without football.
The 39-year-old recently spoke on the Adam Schefter podcast and detailed what his life will look like now and stated that he is simply looking forward to being a dad for a while.
Here's what he said:
“You know, I'm gonna stay busy. I'm a full time chauffeur right now. Seven kids, we've got soccer, soccer is about to wrap up. We're about to wrap up school. We're in Virginia right now getting ready to move to Arizona."
He added:
"So the next week or two will be very busy with that packing up getting things situated, couple family vacations for the summer, and then start all over again in Arizona. But I'm looking forward just to being dad for a little bit. And then figuring out what's to come.”
Ryan Fitzpatrick had an up-and-down career
Fitzpatrick retired with an unfortunate record but a fantastic reel of highlights. His 59-87-1 overall record does leave a lot to be desired, but his ability and guts in the face of adversity stood out for a lot of fans.
For whatever reason, when no one expected anything, he showed up and showed out, playing superb football and taking everyone by surprise. But when the expectation was to win and play well, for the most part he didn't.
Fitzpatrick finished his long, storied career with 34,990 passing yards, 223 touchdowns and 169 interceptions. He only had two winning seasons in his career, with the New York Jets in 2015 and the Miami Dolphins in 2020. Unfortunately, he never made it to the playoffs.
His press conferences were often when the headlines were made as well. Who can forget the time he decided to wear Desean Jackson's clothes to a press conference while in Tampa Bay. Take a look back below.
Fitzpatrick retired after a long and storied career that never quite hit the heights he would have wanted, but one thing is for sure, he had a lot of fun and earned a lot of respect along the way.
