NFL All-Decade Player and Super Bowl Participant to Retire After 13 Seasons

By Brian Jones

A top NFL player is walking away from the game. According to multiple reports, offensive lineman Alex Mack is retiring after 13 seasons in the league. The 36-year-old spent the 2021 season with the San Francisco 49ers and helped the team reach the NFC Championship. 

Mack was selected No. 21 overall by the Cleveland Browns in the 2009 NFL Draft. He would become one of the best offensive linemen in the league, making the All-Pro Team in 2013 while reaching the Pro Bowl in 2010, 2013 and 2015. After spending seven seasons with the Browns, Mack signed with the Atlanta Falcons and made an immediate impact as the team reached the Super Bowl his first year with the team in 2016. In his five seasons with the Falcons, Mack made the All-Pro Team twice and the Pro Bowl three times. And while playing for the 49ers, Mack played in all 17 regular-season games and was named to his seventh and final Pro Bowl. 

"Football's not the easiest thing to do, no matter how much you enjoy the competition, and he's up there in age," 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said in May when asked if Mack will be back with the team in 2022, per NBC Sports Bay Area. "But in terms of how he looks on tape and how he was [last season], everyone knows he can still play."  

In Feb. 2021, Mack explained why he signed with the 49ers. "Kyle is an incredible coach," Mack told NBC Sports.  "He's an incredible coach, great person, strong motivator and runs an offense that is something that I'd know really well and that I performed very well in. Yeah, that said, they (the 49ers) are a very enticing thing." 

Mack also talked about Shanahan's ability as an offensive play-caller. "What Kyle has done very well in the past is he's always been able to link different plays and different schemes so they all look pretty much the same," Mack said. "But it takes advantage of the different things a defense will do. It's a very smart offense, which is fun." What Mack has done in his career led to him being part of the NFL 2010's All-Decade Team. He played college football at California where he was a three-time First All-Pac-10 selection.

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