After only playing five seasons in the NFL, former Michigan football standout, Chase Winovich, has retired.

At just 28 years old, Winovich announced on social media that he would no longer be playing the game of football.

“There’s a lot more I plan to share, for starters: It has been a wild 21 years playing football!” Winovich wrote. “The time has come for me to serve the universe in other ways. From a young age my parents instilled in me the belief that I could do anything I set my mind to – that if I wanted something bad enough, I would find a way. With my brother’s success serving as a beacon of possibilities, I had an insatiable desire to see just how far I could take my lofty ambitions and do what almost no one thought was possible. At a middle school assembly, in front of all my peers, my guidance counselor asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. After replying “I want to be a professional football player”, she suggested I should consider backup options because the chances of me actually playing in the NFL were “slim to none”. Not only would I, and all the people that played vicariously through me, go on to play in the NFL, but we also went on to be named MVP & team’s hardest worker at Michigan, then led the 2020 Patriots in sacks. We did that.

“I consider myself beyond blessed and deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to play the game I love in front of so many and on some of the world’s biggest stages. To quote my friend Matthew Slater, “we all owe football something” and that I certainly do. And to quote my grandma, “It’s only bye for now.”

“Thank you to my family (s/o to my siblings and their spouses), friends, coaches, teammates, teachers, nutritionists, equipment managers, massage therapists, chefs, chiropractors, and anyone else that played a role during my time playing football. I couldn’t have done this without you! God bless! The journey has only just begun!”