Glover is pondering retirement
December 27
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"In each of his previous two seasons in St. Louis, defensive tackle La'Roi Glover has been a fast closer.
In 2006, he recorded five of his six sacks over the last seven games. In 2007, he recorded four of his 51/2 sacks plus his only forced fumble of the season over the last seven games.
But it hasn't happened for him in 2008. He has only one-half sack all season, coming Dec. 7 at Arizona.
"I don't want to make excuses," Glover said. "Personally, it wasn't winning football (this season), and that's pretty disappointing individually."
Glover does have a ready-made excuse, playing most of the year with a knee injury. He will need surgery after the season to repair torn cartilage.
"Everybody's beat down," Glover said. "Once again no excuses. I'm not a big excuse guy."
And now, as he wraps up his 13th NFL season, Glover is contemplating retirement from football. When asked if he wanted to keep playing beyond Sunday's season finale at Atlanta, Glover replied: "I don't know yet. I really don't. We'll get the last (game) going, try to win it, take a break. See how the family's feeling. Talk to my wife about it, and go from there."
But Glover has thought about retirement enough that he has talked to other players about it.
"I talked (Saturday) to a guy who was retired about trying to go out like a Michael Strahan or a Jerome Bettis," Glover said.
Strahan and Bettis went out on their own terms; they weren't shoved out the door.
"But I can name a million other guys," Glover said. "Franco Harris went out as a Seattle Seahawk. Examples like that. You don't always get to choose how you come in or how you go out."
For Glover, if he doesn't return with the Rams, he won't be back.
"It'll be here or nothing," he said.
Glover will turn 35 before the start of training camp, and his contract expires at the end of this season. Whether Jim Haslett returns in 2009, or there's a new head coach in St. Louis, there is no guarantee that Glover will be offered a new contract. Glover says he has heard nothing from the Rams to date.
But if this is it for Glover, if Sunday is his last NFL game, he'll leave with his head high, even if 2008 was a disappointing season.
"Not only can you not have regrets, but I have nothing to be regretful about," he said. "You don't ask to come in a certain way; you don't ask to leave a certain way."
Glover came into the NFL in 1996 as a fifth-round draft pick of the Oakland Raiders, but made his mark with New Orleans and then Dallas. Starting in 2000 with the Saints, Glover made the Pro Bowl six consecutive seasons.
"The guy's a true professional," Haslett said. "He's probably one of the best pass rushing inside guys that ever played in the National Football League. One year we had him (in New Orleans) and he had 17 sacks."
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