People thought they knew the primary reason why Kyle Long eventually reached the decision to retire. He suffered a debilitating hip flexor early in the 2019 season. An ailment that eventually forced the Chicago Bears to place him on Injured Reserve. It marked the fourth-straight year this had happened. Long couldn’t stomach the idea of going through an arduous rehab process yet again. So he made the difficult decision to walk away after seven seasons.
Long talked to WGN Radio about how it all went down. The catalyst for everything was the game against the Oakland Raiders in London. The Bears fell behind 17-0 at halftime but managed a spirited comeback to take a 21-17 lead. Sadly a late collapse by the defense saw them fall 24-21. One of the most frustrating losses of the season. It was after that game that Long knew his time as the starter was coming to an end.
“I just remember, I played the game, did not play well, we did not win, it was a long flight home, and I sat right across from Nagy. And it was clear to me that there were going to be changes made.”
It’s hard to believe a hip issue could rob a man of so much like that. One can only imagine how bad of an injury it must’ve been. Except it turns out that wasn’t the entire story.
Kyle Long wasn’t dealing with one injury but two
Long revealed the truth about the situation in detail. Apparently the hip wasn’t the only injury his lower body had endured. A few weeks prior to that fateful Raiders game, he’d suffered another injury that went undisclosed. One that fully explains why the guard’s customary power simply vanished.
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What the public didn’t know is that Long had actually torn his groin against the Broncos in Week 2, which was impacting his hip flexor. Entering the 2019 season as healthy as he had been in years, Long couldn’t stomach the idea of going on injured reserve for the fourth season in a row, so he tried as hard as he could to play through it. Until he just couldn’t.
“It came to a head in the Raiders game. I couldn’t do much, I wasn’t powerful,” Long said. “Like, you can turn on the film from any year and be like, ‘Even if he’s not healthy, he’s powerful.’ I lost all my power.”
Man. Talk about being snakebit. Kyle Long just couldn’t buy a break towards the end of his career. It was one thing after another. In the end, it took two simultaneous injuries to finally convince him that his body couldn’t take anymore. One can only imagine the pain he was in trying to play through that.
One that reminder that guys like him are just a different breed of tough.
