One of the best interior offensive linemen of his generation is stepping away from the game.
Titans offensive guard Steve Hutchinson intends to retire on Tuesday, Fox’s Jay Glazer reported Monday night.
According to Glazer, Hutchinson said a knee injury slow to heal helped convince him to end his career. An injured knee landed Hutchinson on injured reserve in December.
A seven-time Pro Bowl and a five-time first-team All-Pro, the 35-year-old Hutchinson started all 169 regular-season games in which he played in 12 NFL seasons. A first-round pick of the Seahawks in 2001, Hutchinson played five seasons for Seattle before departing for Minnesota in one of the more famous free-agent episodes in NFL history. In 2006, the Seahawks gave Hutchinson the transition tag, and Minnesota constructed an offer sheet that included a so-called “poison pill” that would have caused the contract to become fully guaranteed if Seattle matched the offer.
Hutchinson would play six seasons in Minnesota, making three Pro Bowls, before moving on to Tennessee for the 2012 campaign -- his last in the NFL, it appears.