Colts center Phil Costa retires at age 26

AP

Phil Costa, a center who signed with the Colts as a free agent last month, has surprisingly decided to retire.

The Colts announced today that the 26-year-old Costa, who previously spent four years with the Cowboys, is calling it a career.

“Phil feels it’s in his best interest to retire from the game,” Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson said in a statement. “We certainly understand and wish him nothing but the best.”

The Colts may understand, but it’s a difficult decision to understand from the outside: There had been no indications that Costa was having any physical problems that would prevent him from playing many more years in the NFL. Costa did have a high-profile broken engagement to reality TV star Brooke Hogan, daughter of Hulk Hogan, but there were no indications that any issues in his personal life would keep him off the field, either.

So this is a surprising story. Perhaps Costa will clear things up in the future, but so far he has said nothing.