Former Cleveland Browns safety T.J. Ward calls it a career

A former Cleveland Browns safety decides to call it a career

T.J. Ward, who had a successful NFL career, including the first four years with the Cleveland Browns, announced his retirement on Tuesday afternoon.

The Browns drafted Ward in the second round (38th overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft out of Oregon. The former Duck had a stellar stint with the Orange and Brown, before leaving to sign a four-year, $23 million deal with the Denver Broncos.

In his first season with Denver, Ward helped lead the Broncos to the No. 1 ranked defense and a Super Bowl 50 victory over the Carolina Panthers. Yet again, Browns fans felt pain seeing a former player go achieve the ultimate goal for another team.

While with the Browns in his first four professional seasons he started in 54 games, missing 10 due to various injuries. In his rookie season, he started all 16 games, compiling 123 tackles (95 solo), 10 passes defensed, four tackles for loss, two interceptions, and a forced fumble. He made the Pro Football Writers of America All-Rookie Team.

For his Cleveland career, Ward finished with 342 tackles (248 solo), 22 passes defensed, 17 tackles for loss, five forced fumbles, a fumble recovery for a touchdown, and 3.5 sacks. He was voted to his first Pro Bowl and made second-team All-Pro.

Ward was known as a safety that really laid the lumber when making hits on opposing players. The most notable hit he made while in Cleveland was on then-Patriots tight end, Rob Gronkowski.

After Gronk brought in a pass from quarterback Tom Brady, he was met by Ward who launched low and hit Gronk right in the knee. The hit was devastating as Gronk suffered a torn ACL.

The hit on Gronk ignited a national discussion on whether or not the hit was dirty or clean.

This was the talk of most sports talk shows at the time. Ward said he would never try and injure another player and only went low as he thought it was the best way to bring the bigger Gronk down, especially since they couldn’t hit high near the head.

The debate ensued with various opinions coming from various different talking heads and former players. It was one of those boom-boom plays that happened to result in a gruesome injury.

Ward lived up to the second-round potential, especially the year after he left Cleveland. He was worth the investment for the Browns over a decade ago and gave them four solid seasons.