Patriots safety Patrick Chung declared his retirement from the NFL on Thursday following a 11-year career.
Chung, 33, had been required to return subsequent to opting the 2020 season. He retires a three-time Super Bowl champion and nine-year starter in New England. He is an individual from the franchise’s 2010s All-Decade group.
Chung was an unheralded contributor of a few of the Patriots’ best defenses since he entered the league as a second-round pick of Oregon in 2009. Chung was likewise voted a ballot a team captain in 2018. In his last season, he got done with 51 tackles and three pass deflections 13 game appearances.
In an Instagram post, Chung wrote: “I want to say thank you to the Patriots organization, my family, my fans, coaches, just everyone. I’m in tears writing this but I’ve decided to hang up the cleats. Bill, Mr. Kraft, thank you for giving me the opportunity to play for your team for 11 years. I love you.
“Bill, for teaching me life on and off the field, (I) will not forget that. To me teammates, trainers, Eq team, video guys, meal room employees, janitors, etc. I love you guys and ladies. Thank you for being the rock to the organization. For cleaning up, feeding, taking care of me for 11 years. You will forever be my family.
“But it’s time to start a new life. Patriot until I die!!! Love you all.”
Chung was regarded for his toughness, most as of late playing through a torn rotator sleeve during the Pats’ 2018 Super Bowl run. He played nearer to the line of scrimmage than most safeguards, surrendering 100 pounds to hindering hostile linemen in the run game. Chung more than stood his ground.
Nationalists mentor Bill Belichick once called Chung one of the NFL’s best players, notwithstanding the reality he never made an All-Pro group or the Pro Bowl.
“He’s one of the best players in the league, one of the best players on our team,” Belichick said of Chung in January 2018. “He does a lot of things very well and has done them that way for a long time. We’re lucky we have him. He’s an outstanding player in all the things that he does. We put a lot on him, and he always comes through.”
In the wake of being miscast as a deep security from 2009-12, Chung left to sign a one-year manage the Eagles in free agency. He returned the next year, playing six straight seasons with the Patriots. Belichick later assumed the fault for Chung’s lethargic profession start in a similar public interview he called him probably the best players in football.
“I’d say a big part of it (being) mistakes that I personally made,” Belichick said. “It didn’t work out the way that we hoped it would, but we got it right the second time. I think we’ve been able to utilize him. I wish we had been able to do that when we initially got him, but it didn’t work out that way.
“Like I said, I think we finally got it right.”
Chung leaves behind a safeties room involved by Devin McCourty, Kyle Dugger, Adrian Phillips, new free-agent expansion Jalen Mills and unique teamer Cody Davis. Dugger and Phillips consolidated to fill Chung’s shoes last season. Plants tasks to help around there, subsequent to marking a four-year bargain this offseason. He played in excess of 100 snaps as a crate security and space corner a year ago in Philadelphia, jobs Chung played in New England for a large part of the past decade.
