The Lions opened up their offseason program on Monday and they said goodbye to a member of the roster on Tuesday.
It wasn’t the team’s choice to part ways, however. The team announced that tackle Emmett Cleary has been placed on the reserve/retired list.
Cleary entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Colts in 2013 and bounced around a few teams before seeing his first regular season action with the Cowboys in 2016. He played 13 games in Dallas, seven more with the Lions last year and made one start with each team.
There’s been no comment from Cleary about his decision, but talked late last year that the prospect of long-term brain injury was “something that every player has to keep in the back of their minds.” Cleary pledged to donate his brain postmortem to scientists studying concussions and interned for the Concussion Legacy Foundation while he was at Boston College.