Dave Tollefson

Dave Tollefson Announces Retirement

Former Giants defensive end Dave Tollefson has announced his retirement, as Michael Eisen of Giants.com details. Although the former seventh-round pick had been a free agent, having not played during the 2013 season, he chose to announce his retirement through the Giants, the team with which he won two Super Bowls.

Tollefson was active for 63 games for the Giants in five seasons from 2007 to 2011. As a part-time defensive end behind players like Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora, he recorded 58 total tackles and 10 sacks for the club during that stretch. In the 2012 offseason, Tollefson signed a two-year, $2.5MM contract with the Raiders, but only lasted one season in Oakland before the team released him last March.

At 32 years old, Tollefson is still relatively young, though he tells Eisen that he’s not quite sure yet what the next stage of his career holds.

“I have a couple surgeries lined up,” Tollefson said. “I have to get some stuff taken care of physically, but right now, it’s kind of up in the air. I’m looking at it as a little bit of a halftime for me. I had this great game plan for the first half of my life and it worked out great, playing pro football and everything, but now the game has changed a little bit, so I have to re-adjust.”