MIAMI — Daunte Culpepper, who starred for the Minnesota Vikings before a major knee injury in 2005 curtailed his career, retired from the NFL on Thursday.
Culpepper completed 64 percent of his passes in a nine-year career, with 142 touchdowns. He tried to resuscitate his career with the Miami Dolphins in 2006 and the Oakland Raiders last season, struggling in both of those stops, and wasn’t in training camp with any team this year.
“Since I was not given a fair chance to come in and compete for a job, I would rather move on and win in other arenas of life,” Culpepper said.
Culpepper has spent the past months hoping for chances with any team, including the Green Bay Packers, saying just last week he’d accept a backup job there behind Aaron Rodgers. The Packers had Culpepper in for a workout before this year’s draft, with apparently little contact since.
“No matter what I did or said, there seemed to be a unified message from teams that I was not welcome to compete for one of the many jobs that were available at the quarterback position,” Culpepper said.
Miami acquired Culpepper before the 2006 season, even though the 6-foot-4, 265-pound quarterback was coming off major surgery to rebuild his right knee. He shredded the knee the previous year while playing with the Vikings. Culpepper started the 2006 season opener, but struggled with his mobility and was sacked 21 times in the first four games.
Oakland took a chance on him after Miami released Culpepper in 2007. He made six starts with the Raiders a year ago, throwing five touchdown passes in those games, but clearly was not playing at the same level as in Minnesota, when he and Randy Moss were perhaps the NFL’s best passing duo.
“When free agency began this year, I had a new sense of excitement about continuing to rebuild my career in the same way that I had rebuilt my knee after my catastrophic injury in 2005,” Culpepper said. “Unfortunately, what I found out was that the league did not share any of the optimism about me as an unrestricted free agent that I expected. In fact, there was an overwhelming sense that there was no room for me among this year’s group of quarterbacks.”
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