The Seattle Seahawks have announced that wide receiver  Sidney Rice is retiring from the NFL after seven season. Rice made it to the Pro Bowl once during his career, and won one Super Bowl championship.

The wide receiver spent that second half of the 2013 season on the injured reserve list after tearing his ACL. As a result, he was out of action during the Seahawks’ Super Bowl run.

According to Rice, he is retiring because of concussions and other injury issues that have piled up during his seven-year NFL career:

“I was just thinking about things I’ve been through in the last few years,” said Rice, a big-play wide receiver who signed with the Seahawks in 2011 after playing his first four seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. “I’ve hit the ground a number of times. I have quite a few injuries. It’s something I’ve always battled through and came back from.

“But I just figure at this point I have the rest of my life ahead of me and I want to be able to function and do things later down the road.”

While this sucks for NFL fans, Rice is one heck of a wide out,  it was definitely the right decision for Rice and his future.

The danger of concussions is a major problem for NFL players, and it is something that the league is going to need to fix going forward. But it is also good that some players are taking into account their own future when they need to make a decision whether or not they will continue to play.

We wish nothing but the best to Sidney Rice and his family.

[twitter-follow screen_name=’sportswithneil’] [twitter-follow screen_name=’nvr93′]