After 22 seasons, 41 miles, Giants punter Jeff Feagles announces retirement

Giants punter Jeff Feagles retires

Jeff Feagles has punted for more than 41 miles in his professional career. He is the oldest player to earn a Super Bowl ring. He was the last one standing from the roster of the immortal “Tecmo Super Bowl” video game.

And today, after 22 seasons in the NFL and a record 352 consecutive regular-season games, the 44-year-old punter announced his retirement in a press conference at the Giants' Timex Performance Center.

"This game takes a toll on your body, and eventually it tells you you can't do it anymore," Feagles said. "That day is today."

Feagles had hoped to return for one more season -- particularly after the way the last one ended, with the Giants missing the playoffs -- but ran into physical hurdles as he started the team’s offseason program. He informed the team before last week’s NFL Draft he was considering retirement, leading to the Giants’ seventh-round selection of former East Carolina punter Matt Dodge.

"My mind was telling me that I wanted to go back and do this. ... But I started working out and my body is not just recovering the way it's supposed to," Feagles said. "I'm not going to be the guy that's coming back and pulling a Brett Favre on you."

Arguably the best directional punter in league history, Feagles could angle his punts out of bounds or pin them against the sideline with near-scientific precision. He debuted for New England in 1988, and played for five NFL teams in his career, spending the past seven seasons with the Giants.

Feagles was part of the Giants’ Super Bowl XLII championship and had one of his best seasons late in his career, posting a coveted 40.2-yard net average in 2008 – one of his two Pro Bowl seasons. At today's press conference, Giants coach Tom Coughlin called Feagles "one of the greatest Giants of all time."

"I'm proud to be a football player, and I'm proud to say I'll always be a New York Giant," the punter said.

His career ends after 1,770 punts, in both regular and postseason, 247 of which landed out of bounds and 514 which landed inside the 20 (though that data was not charted before 1991, so those figures are incomplete).

Competing to replace him are two players who have zero punts in the NFL: Dodge and Jy Bond, a former Australian rules football player whom the Giants signed in March.

Dodge -- whose college coach, Skip Holtz, calls him a “punter in a weightlifter’s body” on account of his 6-1, 224-pound frame -- was both a punter and kickoff specialist for East Carolina and can also placekick.

A transfer from the 2005 Appalachian State FCS national championship team, Dodge played three seasons for East Carolina and ranked second in the nation last fall with a 45.8-yard average. He had a 39.1 net average, with 24 of his 67 punts inside the 20 and 22 traveling 50 or more yards.

Click here to order Jeff Feagles' proCane Rookie Card.



(nj.com)