Hours after the New York Giants cut linebacker Jon Beason, the former all-pro announced his retirement. The team may have not gotten the best out of the LB, much due to injuries, but there's no question he gave the team everything he had.

“I was able to have some success and set the pace and break records – things I never even really paid attention to until after the fact,” Beason said. “I couldn’t have scripted a better story, coming in as a first-round pick and starting in my first NFL game and setting the club high in tackles, and then breaking it every other year that I played, the Pro Bowls, the All-Pro’s, pinching myself, getting the big contract based on what I had already done; being rewarded for all that was a great feeling. I know that I’m very, very fortunate to have that moment, to have those memories of a certain period of time where I was a big deal."

New York Giants v Carolina Panthers
Getty Images
loading...

Beason was chosen in the first round of the 2007 draft, and played every game in his first four season. “The only thing I wish I could have done — I dreamt often of being on the first team to win a championship for the Carolina Panthers. To date, it hasn’t happened. To do something first, I thought was really special and for me to play for the last expansion team, instead of following a legacy of greatness with some of the storied franchises, to do it first was something that was always on my mind. I would say that with everything, even the injuries, the ups and downs of an NFL career, that’s my biggest regret. That’s the thing that looms darkest for me moving forward, knowing that the opportunity has passed me by. It’s something that I’ll have to live with.”

The Giants must go to the draft to find there next big time linebacker. The team has tried to go through free agency in the past few years to resurrect this defense, and it's constantly failed them.

More From 104.5 THE TEAM