San Francisco 49ers Lose Another Defender With Linebacker Chris Borland Retiring

When Patrick Willis announced that he was retiring it did not sting too bad with rookie Chris Borland playing as well as he did last season. However, it looks like the 49ers might have to go with a linebacker with their first round pick. Chris Borland has decided to retire at the tender age of 24 because of concussion concerns.

He does not have an extensive history of concussions or any issues because of them. He just doesn't want to wait until he does have issues before he decides to hang it up.

via Reddit

Borland talked about the decision with ESPN's Outside the Lines:

"I feel largely the same, as sharp as I've ever been, for me it's wanting to be proactive," said Borland. "I'm concerned that if you wait till you have symptoms, it's too late. ... There are a lot of unknowns. I can't claim that X will happen. I just want to live a long healthy life, and I don't want to have any neurological diseases or die younger than I would otherwise."

You can't argue with his logic or fault him for wanting to live a long, happy, and healthy life. These days we see countless stories online about guys that are struggling after long careers because of all the concussions they had during their playing days.

That being said it certainly puts the 49ers between a rock and a hard place. They now have a very big hole on defense that they are going to need to fill. Are you sure you want to retire Patrick Willis?

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