Sedrick Ellis, the defensive tackle who signed with the Bears last month, won’t go to Chicago after all.
Ellis did not report to training camp and instead told the Bears he intents to retire from the NFL, the team announced on Thursday.
The news comes as a surprise: Ellis is only 28 years old and has no known health concerns. Last year he started all 16 games for the Saints. This year he was scheduled to earn $1 million on a one-year contract.
After a college career at USC in which he earned a Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year award and recognition as an All-American, Ellis was the seventh overall pick in the 2008 NFL draft. He played out the full five years of his rookie contract, which was worth more than $30 million. If he has spent his money wisely, he’ll never need to work another day in his life. But it’s surprising, given that he just signed with a new team and still has plenty of good football left in him, that he wants to walk away.