Former Lions safety Glover Quin announced his retirement early Monday morning. At the age of 33, Quin has decided to move on to other endeavors. 
“Playing professional sports was always a dream of mine. Football was the route I chose and God blessed me to be able to persevere through all the hardships and play 10 years in the NFL,” Quin wrote in a text message to ESPN’s Michael Rothstein. “I’m so thankful for the opportunity I had to play in the NFL with such great players and two great organizations.
“Football was never who I was as a person. It was always what I had done. I wanted to use football as a stepping stone into the rest of my life and not let football be my life. I always only wanted to play 10 years. Said if I was able to walk off the field after the last game in Year 10, it would be really hard for me to walk back on. I’m young, I’m healthy and I got a lot of life to live. So I’m walking away from the game of football.”
The Lions released safety Glover Quin in February, but his run with Detroit could have ended much sooner. Quin actually asked the team to release him in the previous offseason, shortly after the team hired Matt Patricia However, the Lions obviously declined, and kept Quin for the 2018 campaign before cutting ties.
Quin started in all 16 of the Lions’ games in 2018, but saw some of his play time eaten into by rookie Tracy Walker down the stretch. Although his performance dipped near the end, he left the game with a 148-game starting streak, the highest of any active safety in the NFL up until his retirement.
The New Mexico product enjoyed the best season of his career in 2014 when he earned a Pro Bowl nod and registered seven interceptions. Over his decade in the NFL with the Texans and Lions, Quin recorded 24 interceptions and 740 tackles in total.
A really underrated career. Started 156 of 159 career games, including every game since his rookie season. Happy Retirement GQ!
Thank you, Mr. Quin! A true professional!