Washington defensive back DeAngelo Hall is still finished playing football.
But the timeline of the announcement might not have been what he or his team wanted, which led to some confusion yesterday when he started talking about it.
The saga began yesterday morning at teammate Ryan Kerrigan‘s golf tournament, when he told John Keim of ESPN.com he was weighing whether to join a front office or pursue broadcasting jobs, but added: “I’m not playing. That’s for damn sure,”
He said he’s talked to a number of different outlets about possible jobs, and there’s a sense Washington would bring him in for some role if he wanted to work for a team.
None of this takes away from the fact his 14-year-career was very good, as he was once one of the top corners in the game, and transitioned to safety late in his career before injuries took their toll. He finished his career with 43 interceptions, and returned five of them for touchdowns. And now that he’s talked about it at least twice, it’s hard to imagine how much more ground there is to cover at any potential press conference.
Straining to see the horses come out of the starting gate was like watching the Preakness from the deck of the Titanic. Against such a backdrop a 3-year old chestnut colt named Justify went from the latest equine rookie star to one step away from horse-racing glory.
Justify had enough left to hold off several hard-charging challengers and win the Preakness on a sloppy, slippery track, and he will try to become the second Triple Crown champion in four years in the Belmont Stakes on June 9 .
The drama heightened because nobody — but actually nobody — saw this entire race. Once they hit the backstretch, the cream of the Class of 2018 morphed from race horses into ghost riders of the night. For roughly half of the race, they were totally invisible to the close to 135,000 spectators.
At just that point, every single pilgrim in the joint knew that something tremendous was building. Justify and Good Magic, his closest rival in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, were running head to head, with little room between them.
And to all the live spectators they were invisible.