Haloti Ngata of the Detroit Lions celebrates a second quarter sack on Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers in 2017. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)
Haloti Ngata put some serious thought into his retirement. The five-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle made a banner declaring his retirement from the NFL after a 13-year career, then trekked to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, and used Instagram to blast his announcement out to the world.
In an Instagram post to his 19,500-plus followers on Monday, Ngata published a video of him standing atop Africa’s largest mountain—19,341 feet above sea level—holding a large banner that read: “I’m retiring from the NFL on top.” The banner included the names of the teams he played for throughout his career, including the Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Lions, and Philadelphia Eagles.
Ngata was a first-round pick by the Ravens in the 2006 NFL draft and spent most of his career playing for Baltimore. He won Super Bowl XLVII with the Ravens at the end of the 2012 season. The 35-year-old played 180 games throughout his career and recorded 32.5 sacks.
SportTechie Takeaway
Ngata isn’t the first athlete to use Instagram to make a major announcement, though perhaps his is among the most creative. Last week, Dallas Cowboys pass rusher David Irving used the platform to announce that he was quitting the NFL in an Instagram Live story in which he appears to be smoking marijuana.
Declaring himself a “cannabis advocate” in his social media bio, Irving shared his stance on the league’s substance-abuse policy to his 217,000-plus Instagram followers after he was suspended indefinitely for violating it.
“Basically guys, I quit,” Irving said in the story, according to Pro Football Talk. “They want to talk about a suspension and all this other nonsense. I’m out of there. I’m not doing this s— no more.”
He then used the platform to advocate for the medicinal benefits of cannabis, saying that the drug could be used as an effective treatment for injuries, rather than prescribing athletes painkillers that might prove addicting.
“There’s a lot of s— f—– up with the NFL, man,” Irving said. “As you all know, I voiced my opinion about this medicine right here. We’ve got this opioid thing going on and I’m prescribed all that bulls—. i just think it’s bulls— that we’ve got to deal with that policy.”
Social media has allowed athletes to bypass the media middleman and enable them to voice their opinions and interact directly with the fans who support them. This is something that Chad Johnson, the retired six-time NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver who briefly changed his legal name to Ochocinco, recently told SportTechie was behind the growth of his personal brand. Johnson leverages his popularity on social media to land business opportunities, such as his recent addition as a team owner in the Fan Controlled Football League.
