|
The NFL career of John Cominsky has come to an end. Cominsky, a free agent defensive end who spent the past three years with the Detroit Lions, announced his retirement Monday on his Instagram account, citing medical issues. Cominsky played five seasons in the NFL for the Lions and Atlanta Falcons. He was selected by the Falcons in the fourth round of the 2019 draft. "After 6 years in the NFL, I am officially medically retiring," he wrote. "I am proud of the career I had, but have accumulated a combination of injuries that are overwhelming my desire to continue playing." Cominsky, 29, missed the entire 2024 season after suffering a torn MCL in his right knee on the second day of padded practices during training camp last July. He started 20 games for Detroit during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. He also started all three of Detroit's postseason games in 2023. Cominsky finished his career with 107 tackles and 7.5 sacks. In his farewell post, Cominsky thanked the Lions and Falcons organizations. Detroit claimed him off waivers in 2022, and he played a key role on the defense during the team's march to the NFC Championship Game the following season. "I learned a lot in my time playing ball, that will absolutely benefit me moving forward," Cominsky wrote. "I had the privilege to play in a lot of big time games on big time stages. I shared the field with players I had admired as a young athlete. I shook hands with hall of famers and met some of the best men and women on this planet." Lions head coach Dan Campbell praised general manager Brad Holmes for identifying Cominsky as a player to claim off waivers in 2022. Campbell views Cominsky as a foundational piece of the current team culture that he has worked hard to build in Detroit, based on his personality and work ethic. "He was kind of the model of what we were early in this thing. And the value that he brought to us, the type of teammate he was, the type of player that he was, that'll be missed," Campbell said on Tuesday morning during the NFL's annual meeting. "Unfortunately, it's part of this game and you get these injuries and some of them it's just hard to recover from, but I wish him the best of luck, certainly, and love him to death. He was the best. That's a tough side of this game, is the injuries."
|
