Chad Pennington Sitting out of the NFL for One Year...Umm Chad, You Heard About the Lockout, Right?

Chad after a lengthy autograph session.

ESPN - Scratch Chad Pennington as an option for the Miami Dolphins' -- or anybody else's -- quarterback depth chart next season.  Pennington told the Charleston Daily Mail he plans to skip the 2011 season while he recovers from shoulder and knee injuries and will work for Fox Sports as an analyst. The two-time NFL Comeback Player of the Year, who will turn 35 next weekend, said he might consider returning to the field in 2012. "I'm actually going to take this year off, get healthy and do some work for Fox Sports," Pennington told the West Virginia newspaper. "I'm going to evaluate things and see where I am physically." He signed a one-year contract with Fox Sports and will be paired with Sam Rosen, the Miami Herald reported. Pennington suffered another major injury to his throwing shoulder a few snaps into his lone Dolphins start last season. He tore a knee ligament while playing a pickup basketball game in March.

Newsflash to Chad, the whole freaken league is about to take the next year off bro.  I don't know if Fox is planning on showing Arena Football or something, but you might want to check on the status of that job.

And this is aside the point that 35 year old qb's with no contract, with an udon noodle for an arm and more surgeries than td passes in the past few years, don't really need to announce that they're taking a year off.  Not exactly a line of GM's beating down your door for your services I'd imagine. 

I can never understand why athletes take this path.  You're not fooling anyone, its forced retirement, you're washed up.  Instead of acting so ignorant, how about just taking the high road. Just announce your retirement like a man. You'll get a few congratulations, some applause and then you can move on, rather than allowing people like myself to mock and laugh at you.