The Philadelphia Eagles made a massive trade near the deadline to help their struggling secondary last year as they acquired Baltimore Ravens cornerback Jaire Alexander, but over a week later, he was gone from the team and done with football.
It was a surprising move as he was expected to make his debut with the Eagles against the Green Bay Packers, his former team. At the last second, he was ruled inactive, and shortly afterward, it was announced that he was stepping away from football.
Eagles fans and the franchise were caught off guard, as they had hoped Alexander could help fix an inconsistent CB2 position all year. Well, the veteran cornerback finally opened up about what happened, and it's completely understandable why the end happened the way it did.
Jaire Alexander shares what happened with early exit from Eagles
Alexander wrote an article for The Players' Tribune detailing the full story behind his exit, which began with a knee injury he was playing through and culminated in the worst game of his career against the Buffalo Bills in Week 1 last year, when he was still in Baltimore. When he first arrived in Philly, he was optimistic he would be ready to go, but after a sleepless night before the Packers game, he decided he couldn't handle it and texted the Eagles organization that he was done, then came to the facility to share the news in person.
"I remember I had this very emotional heart-to-heart talk that morning with Christian Parker, who was the Eagles DBs coach at the time. I was basically crying my eyes out to him about letting even more people down. That’d basically been the story of my life for the previous year, at least in my head — me messing up in some way and letting people down, and then feeling miserable.Â
I remember telling Coach Parker in that moment: 'My head’s messed up right now. My head is truly messed up. I don’t know what to do anymore.'"
Alexander did not rule out returning to football at some point, but he is not focused on it right now. He's been more focused on getting healthy physically and mentally.
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While Eagles fans were disappointed not to see him take the field, they understand what Alexander did and hope he can find peace with himself after a good NFL career, with two All-Pro selections and Pro Bowls to show for it.
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