Veteran NFL tight end Hayden Hurst has announced his retirement after seven seasons in the league.
Hurst shared the news on his personal Instagram account. He commemorated a career that saw him start as a failed baseball prospect and end with him playing football at the highest level. The 32-year-old Hurst called his decision to retire “about a year overdue.”
“It is a blessing how far sports took me in this life,” Hurst wrote. “When I was stuck in a dorm room at 18 years old in Pirate City, thinking my sports career was over, I never thought I’d turn it into a 7 year NFL career but l put my head down and worked. I was determined to make football work after baseball failed me, and I never let anyone tell me I couldn’t do anything.
“I wouldn’t change a thing about my career, the ups and downs made me dig deep, talk to God more and find out who I was inside. The answer: a fighter. I fought daily to be the best version of myself that I could and I hope it showed on the field with the passion I played with every snap and every game.
“To all the fans in the cities I played in thank you for supporting me along the way and I hope I represented your hometown well.”
Hurst closed by saying he was moving on to the next chapter of his life: becoming “the best husband and father I can be.”
The Jacksonville native was a standout two-sport athlete coming out of high school, playing both football and baseball for The Bolles School in Florida. The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Hurst, a 6’4″ right-handed pitcher, in the 17th round of the 2012 MLB draft. Hurst walked five batters and recorded just one out in his lone minor-league appearance before opting to put the shoulder pads back on.
Hurst turned into a top-shelf tight end in his three seasons at South Carolina, which eventually led to the Ravens picking him 25th overall in the 2018 NFL draft. Hurst also had brief stints with the Atlanta Falcons, Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Panthers, and Los Angeles Chargers.
Hurst’s most memorable run came in 2022, when he started a career-high 13 games in his lone season witht he Bengals. He also started in all three postseason games in Cincinnati’s run to the Super Bowl. He last played for the Chargers in 2024.
