Longtime New England Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower officially announced his retirement on Tuesday.
Hightower, who won three Super Bowl championships over his nine-year career, posted an essay on The Players’ Tribune.
“They say time flies in this league. Boy, they’re not lying,” Hightower wrote. “Today, I am officially retiring from the NFL. I know these announcements always feel bittersweet, but I can’t think of a better story than the one I wrote in New England. A decade, three Super Bowls, two Pro Bowls, and the birth of my son — all playing for one franchise. How many guys have a story like that?
“So this is a happy day for me, and I just wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate you embracing a Southern kid from Lewisburg, Tennessee.”
The 33-year-old Hightower didn’t play in 2020 as a COVID-19 opt-out and also sat out the 2022 season.
He ends his career playing 117 regular-season games and totaling 569 tackles and 27 sacks. He appeared in 17 playoff games and racked up 81 tackles and three sacks.
His most clutch plays are easily his strip-sack of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan in Super Bowl LI to help spark the Patriots’ comeback from a 28-3 second-half deficit and his tackle of Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch near the goal-line on the play that preceded Malcolm Butler’s game-saving interception in Super Bowl XLIX.
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Hightower, a former first-round pick out of Alabama, spent his entire career on the Patriots.
