Tears of Joy: Buffalo Bills WR Emmanuel Sanders Explains NFL Retirement Decision

"I gave the game everything I had and the game gave it back to me.” - Emmanuel Sanders.

Emmanuel Sanders was still effective as a member of the Buffalo Bills last season, but this week the two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver announced his retirement from the NFL.

Sanders, 35, caught 42 passes for 626 yards and averaged 14.9 yards per catch last season -- a career-best total. But Sanders, who spent five of his 12 years in the league with Denver (from 2014 to 2019), now says he will retire as a Broncos player in the city where he earned both of his Pro Bowl honors and his Super Bowl ring as well.

Sanders had been hinting at retirement over the course of this summer ... something the Super Bowl-hopeful Bills seemed aware of as they made changes in their Stefon Diggs-led receivers room.

"I've got my son, he's getting older. I've got a daughter getting older. And for the past three years, [I've] been traveling and moving from team to team, trying to win a Super Bowl," Sanders said to radio host Colin Cowherd, via SI.com. "But I've got some reflecting I want to do ...''

The reflecting is done, even though Sanders needed just 755 more yards to reach 10,000 for his career. Still, he surely cherishes that Super Bowl ring, having been a part of the Denver Broncos' win in Super Bowl 50, and he likely cherishes that last year in Buffalo, when he helped the Bills make a playoff run, which he now follows up by going out while still a capable player.

“When I touched down in this city, it was electrifying.”@ESanders_10 on coming to Denver: pic.twitter.com/O4Gku9vTCy

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) September 7, 2022

Sanders was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft and played four years there. The SMU product signed with Denver in 2014, and it was during that time that he chose to reflect on in his retirement press conference on Wednesday, recalling his tears of joy regarding what he was accomplishing.

“I gave it my all,'' Sanders said. "Every single rep, every single play, I tried to go 100 percent as hard as I can. And that’s why I can hang my hat and say I gave the game everything I had and the game gave it back to me.”