{"id":26543,"date":"2017-08-08T20:08:18","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T00:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=26543"},"modified":"2017-08-08T20:08:52","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T00:08:52","slug":"veteran-vince-wilfork-announced-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2017\/08\/08\/veteran-vince-wilfork-announced-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Vince Wilfork Has Announced His Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After the Houston Texans loss to the New England Patriots in last year&#8217;s divisional round of the playoffs, emotions ran high. Veteran defensive tackle, and former Patriot, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WilfVi20.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vince Wilfork<\/a><\/strong> hinted that he may have played his last NFL game. As the preseason approached, many wondered if he would return and if it would be with the Texans or not. Yesterday, however, all\u00a0speculation ceased as veteran Vince Wilfork <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/20275613\/vince-wilfork-houston-texans-announces-retirement\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has announced his retirement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Well y\u2019all \u2013 it\u2019s been a great run, but the time has come. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Kingsford?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Kingsford<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Sponsored?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Sponsored<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DXfDzholBi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/DXfDzholBi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Vince Wilfork (@wilfork75) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wilfork75\/status\/894604103455657984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 7, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Veteran Vince Wilfork Has Announced His Retirement<\/h2>\n<p>What better way to announce a retirement than to announce a farewell tailgate? The famous Wilfork overalls and hearing him say &#8220;No more cleats, I&#8217;m movin&#8217; on to smoked meats&#8221;. We will all fondly remember him during the Texans&#8217; edition of<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nfl.com\/videos\/nfl-network-hard-knocks\/0ap3000000520110\/Hard-Knocks-Wilfork-brings-some-Texas-flavor\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> HBO&#8217;s Hard Knocks <\/a>where the overalls became famous. These are just a few examples of one of the reasons he was<a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/news\/vince-wilfork-forever-loved-england-000235547.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> one of the most loved players\u00a0<\/a>in Patriots history.<\/p>\n<p>The other reason? Wilfork has been a dominant force for 13 seasons. Run stuffing, collapsing the pocket, disrupting and even sacking the quarterback. He&#8217;s done it all. In 11 years with New England, Wilfork racked up 516 tackles, 16 sacks, 25 pass deflections, three interceptions, and four forced fumbles. The five-time Pro Bowler was also apart of two Super Bowl winning squads in 2004, his rookie season, and 2014, his final year in New England.<\/p>\n<p>Wilfork spent his last two seasons as a member of the Houston Texans. His 43 tackles and one pass deflection didn&#8217;t amount to his previous numbers but the production was still there. If Wilfork had a healthy <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WattJ.00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">J.J. Watt<\/a><\/strong> during his time with Houston, who knows what they could&#8217;ve achieved. Even without the Texans&#8217; star defensive end, Wilfork helped Houston claim the 12th spot in rushing yards allowed and second in passing yards allowed.<\/p>\n<p>Wilfork finishes his career with some impressive numbers. On 189 games played, Wilfork racked up 559 tackles, 16 sacks, and four forced fumbles. He also has an amazing 26 pass deflections and three interceptions in his career. Who knows, Wilfork&#8217;s next stop may be the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"zHp_QppoQY5ubQkN5DKYNw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/631712352\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'zHp_QppoQY5ubQkN5DKYNw',sig:'WkfuizrlasqP3-8ZuU06Rdt_xrouULw47PFfgtw6Qr0=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'631712352',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many were hoping to see the big man lace up his cleats for one more season. Unfortunately, veteran Vince Wilfork has announced his retirement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1949,"featured_media":26730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[61,114,202,38,40,560],"class_list":["post-26543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","tag-football","tag-houston-texans","tag-j-j-watt","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-vince-wilfork"],"modified_by":"Parker Hurley, Team Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1949"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}