Julius Thomas Retires From NFL To Pursue Psychology Career

(247 SPORTS) - NFL tight end Julius Thomas is retiring from the game of football, and he's going into a second professional career with a big goal in mind.

The two-time NFL Pro Bowl announced his retirement in a piece to the Players Tribune on Friday afternoon, citing a desire to return to school and pursue a doctorate degree in hopes of entering the world of psychology and learning the effects of contact sports on brain trauma and neurobehavioral performance.

Thomas was a free agent this offseason and despite some interest from teams, remained unsigned until his retirement. He spent time with three different NFL teams - the Denver Broncos, Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins - over the course of his career. He made the Pro Bowl in 2013 and 2014 while with the Denver Broncos.

In the Players Tribune piece, Thomas admitted he had work to do "internally" and indicated he wasn't 100 percent happy despite his financial gains as a professional athlete.

I realized that no matter my material success, I had much work to do internally. I could no longer play to the social ideal of the happy athlete millionaire. I had to take an honest look at who I was, or as Jung would say, dive into my "shadow." To realize that life is tough emotionally on all of us. That we can't grow until we have healed from the traumas of our pasts.

I did this by reading and studying from the best minds of our time and the past: Socrates, Eckhart Tolle, Aquinas, Brene Brown, George Mumford, David Hawkins, Dr. King, etc. Although I am and always will be an athlete, there were other parts of me that were being suppressed. Interests, relationships, meaning. I had to learn to accept that my identity was not my profession — actually there were a lot more facets to what makes me, me that I had never fully embraced or explored. But by doing so I was able to become a fuller version of myself. Through this journey I was able to see the importance of love and compassion and the benefits of peeling back our masks. I became aware of how much others can benefit from this experience as well.

And that's a big part of why I've decided to go back to school.

Thomas enjoyed his most success with the Broncos, catching 65 passes for 788 yards and 12 touchdowns in a breakout 2013 campaign. Thomas followed that up with 43 grabs for 489 yards and 12 scores the following season in Denver before joining the Jaguars as a free agent.

After a solid start to his time with the Jaguars in 2015, Thomas suffered through an injury-plagued 2016 season that saw him miss seven games and total only 281 yards receiving. The Jaguars traded Thomas to the Dolphins prior to the 2017 season, where he signed a new two-year contract. He caught 41 passes for 388 yards and three touchdowns for Miami before being released on March 14.

Thomas didn't play college football until the 2010 season. He was an all-conference player in basketball at Portland State before making the move to football. He was a First-Team All-Big Sky selection in his first year on the field and was drafted in the fourth round of the 2011 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos.