On Thursday, Cam Skattebo admitted that he had considered retirement a month into his ankle injury last year. This was just a few months into his NFL career, with the former Arizona State running back having been drafted by the New York Giants in 2025.
The admission came in an interview earlier this week in 'Up&Adams' in which the running back spoke about a promise he made to himself in college regarding retiring at the first sign of serious injury. Skattebo also spoke about how the injury allowed him to get to know himself better.
This candid moment by Skattebo caught some by surprise, including Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe, who was taken aback by the idea that a single injury could take such a toll on a player's confidence. He said as much on Friday's edition of 'Nightcap':
"There are no winners in football; there are survivors in football. You play probably the sports that the most serious injuries happen… You gotta know when the journey is over," said Sharpe
Sharpe and his co-hosts, former NFL player Chad Johnson and former NBA player Joe Johnson, were surprised by the idea that a young player would contemplate retirement shortly after their debut. They saw it as a failure of mentality, at a moment when Skattebo should've been focused on returning to the field with the New York Giants.
Speaking on Thursday in Up&Adams, Cam Skattebo explained that he briefly considered leaving the NFL after his serious ankle injury last year. For him, it was all down to a promise he made to himself before making the jump to the pros. He wouldn't let the NFL get in the way of his health:
"Coming out of college and going into the NFL, I think I gave myself one rule and it was if I ever got a major injury I was done playing," he said . "And that happened seven games into my career, so it kind of sucked."
He also explained that in the end, the recovery process allowed him to get to know himself better:
"Just finding who I was, finding my happiness, finding the person I wanted to be on and off the field. And I think that's something I built over the last nine, 10 months and being able to now focus back on football,"
Nonetheless, Cam Skattebo did say that the recovery process did take a heavy mental toll on him, with days in which he would spend up to 14 hours doing absolutely nothing.
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