Early retirement

Athletes have shorter working lifespan than government clerks therefore they have to make most of that small window of opportunity. Here is a list of retirees who walked out when they still had a lot of gas left in them.

49 and oh. That's the record of the only undefeated champion of the world, Rocky Marciano. He had desire, power and a solid chin (and none of the stupidity of Evander Holyfield). His victims are a virtual who's who in the boxing world and they include Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Ezzard Charles and Archie Moore. Reason for retirement: to spend time with his wife and young daughter. Marciano died tragically a day before his 46th birthday in a plane crash. Jim Brown played in the National Football League as a running back with the Cleveland Browns for 9 seasons and retired in 1965 at the age of 30. He held the record for the most rushing yards before Walter Payton broke it (now held by Emitt Smith). Reason for retirement: to devote more time for acting (Dirty Dozen, Ice Station Zebra) and race relations. He has been an outspoken critic of the modern African-American athlete for what he perceives as a lack of involvement in the African-American community. Another exciting running back, Barry Sanders, walked away from the Detroit Lions of the NFL in 1999 at age 31 when he was just 1,457 yards shy of Walter Payton's rushing record. "My reason for retirement is simple.

My desire to exit the game is greater than my desire to remain in it", he said in a written statement. Although some believed that the real reason was his frustration against the Lions failure to make it to the Super Bowl. Bernard Hinault was the greatest cyclist next to Eddy Merckx. He is one of the 5 cyclist to win 5 Tour de France (before Lance Armstrong won seven). He retired in 1986 at age 32 after placing 2nd to Greg Lemond in that years tour. Nicknamed the "Badger" for his aggressive personality and racing, he is the last Frenchman to win his native tour. Bison Dele (aka Brian Williams) Known for his eccentric behavior, Dele was a member of the Chicago Bulls championship team from 1996-97.

As a 30 yo free spirit, he walked away from a 5 year, $36M contract with the Detroit Pistons in 1999 and went to Beirut. He admitted that he "never had the passion for basketball that my dad (who was a member of the Platters) had for music". He was murdered in 2002 by his brother aboard his catamaran "Hakuna Matata" while they were in the South Pacific. Just after 9/11, Pat Tillman turned away a $1.3M contract from the NFL's Arizona Cardinals in favor of a dangerous $18,000 pay from the US Army to fight for his country. Senators John McCain of Arizona said that Tillman "viewed his decision (to enlist) as no more patriotic than that of his less fortunate, less renowned countrymen who loved our country enough to volunteer". His specific reason for joining the Army is still not clear since his closest friends would not talk about it. Two years after enlisting, he was reported to have been killed by enemy gunfire in Southeastern Afghanistan. But a report this year said that he had been killed by friendly fire as a result of miscommunication.

My brother, who went to Paris with his wife to be with Lance on his final day of racing, ended up a few bucks poorer and a little bit wiser. He was still smarting when called me up telling me that his bag containing 3 cameras, money and an i-Pod, was stolen in the train from the airport. He ended up using a disposable camera instead. And no shot of Lance, I'd like to add. Dan Wistihuff, who saw the first 6 stages, had it beter. He had a nice TTT shot of T-Mobile and Discovery with Lance and Jan Ullrich's face's so prominent.

I told you, I wasn't jealous of my bro.