{"id":8037,"date":"2025-07-19T12:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T12:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/8037\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T12:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T12:35:07","slug":"49ers-7th-round-success-story-retires-from-the-nfl-on-eve-of-training-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/8037\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers\u2019 7th-round success story retires from the NFL on eve of training camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

He was once the 240th pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

And then he lasted in the league for more than five years and won a Super Bowl ring.<\/p>\n

Now, Richie James is calling it a career.<\/p>\n

The former Middle Tennessee State star, who the 49ers chose in the seventh round seven years ago, has announced his retirement on the eve of training camp.<\/p>\n

“It took time but I have come to realize I am retired from the NFL,” James wrote on X<\/a>. “7th round out of MTSU. I feel like I was just a ball player to last that long. Unfortunately my knee never healed properly. I was playing hurt since ’22. Oh well. I gave everything I got to the game of Football.”<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0It’s a big time for Shedeur Sanders in Cleveland<\/a><\/p>\n

James battled injuries, but he appeared in games across three seasons for the 49ers, catching 38 passes for 689 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n

He spent the 2022 season with the Giants, a career year with 57 grabs for 569 yards and four TDs.<\/p>\n

In 2023, James joined the Chiefs, where he caught 10 passes in the regular season and ended up getting a Super Bowl ring.<\/p>\n

James was also a strong return man, compiling 1,081 kick return yards and 373 punt return yards with one kick return touchdown in his career.<\/p>\n

The retirement comes at age 29, the latest NFL retirement to come on the front side of 30.<\/p>\n

The speedy James, based on his post, clearly didn’t feel like himself anymore due to the injury, and so he has hung up his cleats for the final time.<\/p>\n

MORE NFL NEWS:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He was once the 240th pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. And then he lasted in the league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-8037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}