Josh Cribbs took a nasty hit while returning a punt in the first quarter of last week’s Browns-Ravens game, and it was so bad it reportedly moved his family to ask him to retire.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Cribbs’ wife and brother both told him he had nothing left to prove and encouraged him to walk away from football to preserve his health.
“Everyone was calling and couldn’t stop crying,” Cribbs told the Plain Dealer. “My brother, who’s the reason why I’m playing football, even he wants me to stop.
“They’re saying, ‘I know you love the game but we don’t want you to play anymore,'” he said of his own family. “They’re like, ‘Family’s more important. You’ve got so many years of your life. You’ve showed enough good football.’
Cribbs returned to practice on Wednesday, six days after suffering a concussion from the hit. His wife reportedly is still concerned about his health.
“She wants me to get a CAT scan, especially with what happened to [former Browns running back Jerome Harrison, who had a brain tumor removed]. I still go over to his house every now and then and talk to him. He’s doing pretty bad. He’s in and out of the hospital with seizures. They just don’t want the same thing to happen to me.”
Cribbs, a two-time Pro Bowl returner, has been playing since 2006. He’s been on the receiving end of hard hits in the past, most notably from former college teammate James Harrison in 2010. He doesn’t seem ready to give it up, but he might want to take his family’s advice and seriously consider it.
