Darren Waller’s NFL Journey Comes to an End

The NFL world was shocked when Giants’ tight end Darren Waller announced his retirement from the league. The 31-year-old had been absent from Organized Team Activities this offseason, and it seems that health concerns were the primary reason behind his decision.

“I almost just lost my life, and I don’t know if I really feel like if I would have died, that I would have felt great about how my life was going,” Waller said in a video posted to YouTube.

Waller’s NFL career spanned nine seasons, including a stint with the Raiders, where he posted back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in 2019 and 2020, earning him a Pro Bowl selection. However, his journey was not without its challenges. He struggled with drug addiction, which led to a suspension for the entire 2017 NFL season. After a stint in rehab and a job stocking shelves at a grocery store, Waller returned to the NFL, determined to turn his life around.

Darren Waller

Waller’s personal life has been subject to media scrutiny, particularly his whirlwind romance with WNBA star Kelsey Plum. The pair got married in 2023 but filed for divorce just a year later. Waller has been expressing himself through music, releasing a music video titled “Who Knew (Her Perspective),” which features a woman bearing a resemblance to Plum stabbing him in the back, leaving him for dead on a beach.

“I’m somebody that will always have multiple passions, multiple ways of expressing myself. And it’s very common for me to outgrow certain passions,” Waller said in his retirement video.

The Giants will save $11.6 million in cap money and take a $2.5 million hit in dead money due to Waller’s retirement. The team had prepared for this day by drafting tight end Theo Johnson out of Penn State in April.

In other news, Cam Newton, a one-time NFL MVP, weighed in on the Caitlin Clark-Chennedy Carter saga, saying that if it was any other league, the foul wouldn’t have been national headlines. Newton told Clark to just keep on playing, saying that she’s in a league full of hyenas and lions, tigers, and bears, and everybody is coming after her to try to dethrone her.

Caitlin Clark

As the NFL world bids farewell to Darren Waller, we can’t help but wonder what the future holds for this talented tight end. Will he continue to express himself through music, or will he find a new passion to pursue?

Darren Waller

One thing is for sure - Darren Waller’s NFL journey may be over, but his story is far from finished.