{"id":213673,"date":"2025-10-14T21:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/213673\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T21:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:44:11","slug":"former-nfl-ol-charles-leno-jr-retires-on-solemn-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/213673\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL OL Charles Leno Jr. retires on solemn anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/keim_john.png&#038;h=80&#038;w=80&#038;scale=crop.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\"\/><\/p>\n<p>John KeimOct 15, 2025, 08:23 AM<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"icon-font-after icon-close-solid-after\" href=\"#\">Close<\/a>John Keim covers the Washington Commanders for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2013 after a stint with the Washington Post. He started covering the team in 1994 for the Journal Newspapers and later for the Washington Examiner. He has authored\/co-authored four books. You can also listen to him on &#8216;The John Keim Report&#8217;, which airs on ESPN Richmond radio.<\/p>\n<p>Former NFL offensive lineman Charles Leno, Jr., announced his retirement &#8211; two years to the day his wife suffered a miscarriage.<\/p>\n<p>Leno announced his retirement at the same time at 2:46 p.m., the moment his wife, Jen, miscarried on Oct. 14, 2023. Leno was informed of the news while in Atlanta preparing for a game with the Commanders against the Falcons. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/38664812\/commanders-charles-leno-jr-play-wife-miscarriage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">He did not play<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Leno said the loss of Paitynn, their fourth daughter who was scheduled to be born that spring, had a devastating impact. He said on that day he knew he &#8220;was done with football.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That day changed everything for me,&#8221; Leno wrote in a post on Instagram. &#8220;It changed the way I see life, the way I carry myself and most of all, it changed what matters most to me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Leno spent seven years with the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"19d73366-b5a5-cca2-a176-a2c024ce0bb3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/chi\/chicago-bears\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Bears<\/a> before being traded to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nfl\/team\/_\/name\/wsh\/washington-commanders\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Washington<\/a> where he played his final three seasons. The Commanders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/39632657\/commanders-releasing-logan-thomas-charles-leno-jr-nick-gates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">released him in the 2024 offseason<\/a>, shortly after general manager Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn had taken over.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago drafted Leno in the seventh round in the 2014 draft. He ended up starting 141 games at left tackle in his career.<\/p>\n<p>Leno wrote a three-page letter thanking fans, teammates, coaches, family friends and God for his football journey and reiterated what the sport meant to him. He called his wife &#8220;my rock.&#8221; And he mentioned his daughters Carsynn, Oaklynn, and Jordynn and said being their dad is the &#8220;greatest role of my life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Leno wrote that his priorities changed after the miscarriage.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To our Angel, Paitynn &#8211; This moment is for you,&#8221; Leno wrote. &#8220;Daddy loves you forever. I carry you with me every day.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John KeimOct 15, 2025, 08:23 AM CloseJohn Keim covers the Washington Commanders for ESPN. He joined ESPN in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-213673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}