Quittin' time

Look, it's not like it's the first time this has happened. OK, so it is.

Kind of.

At least in the (channeling Howard Cosell inflection) NASH-anol FOOT-ball League.

What happened was, veteran defensive back Vontae Davis abruptly announced his retirement yesterday. And when we say "abruptly," we mean "abruptly."

Or maybe you think changing into his street clothes at halftime, saying he was done with pro football and walking out of the Buffalo Bills locker room was a well-planned and thoughtfully conducted exit.

That's what Davis did, and really, it almost makes you feel for the Bills a little. First they so botch their quarterback situation they wind up with one rookie project (Josh Allen) and one Nathan Peterman (Nathan Peterman) to man the post. Now Vontae Davis just up and quits on them.

At halftime. Of an actual game.  

And, yes, this thing has happened before, though the Blob can't think of it happening in the NFL. The most notable instance the Blob can think of happened in Fort Wayne, in the Continental Basketball Association, which was not the NFL. A Duke refugee playing for the Fort Wayne Fury, Thomas Hill, quit at halftime of a game. Took off his uniform, put on his streets and vamoosed. Coach of the team looked around at his bench coming out of halftime and was all like, hey, where's Thomas?

"Thomas took himself off the roster," someone responded. Or something like that.

Again, this was the CBA, not the NFL. Stuff like that happened a lot. The Fury once lost a player during an airport layover. Flew to Chicago, boarded their next flight, and ... hey, where's Thomas (Big Ham) Hamilton?

Turns out he went home. The Fury were one game away from elimination in the playoffs, and they made the tactical mistake of changing planes in Thomas Hamilton's hometown. Apparently the season was over enough for him.

As for Thomas Hill, well, you go from playing for national titles at Duke to playing in the minor leagues in some Midwestern backwater, it's gotta be a comedown. Man, I played with Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill and Christian Laettner. We were college hoops royalty. What the (bleep) am I doing in Fort Wayne, Indiana?

Or something like that.

I imagine the same sorts of things were wheeling through Davis' mind yesterday. He's 30 years old, which in the NFL today increasingly is Pro Football Rest Home territory. He'd played 10 years and 121 games in the league. He was on his third team -- and it was Buffalo, for God's sake.

I don't know if that factored into his abrupt departure. But it likely didn't sway him from it.

No, I have a feeling he'd suddenly decided he'd had enough. It happens. Pro football is such a physically destructive occupation it takes a great deal of passion for the game to play it. So when the flame goes out, it tends to go out in the blink of an eye.

Although halftime of a game is a bit quicker than the blink of an eye.

He should have at least finished out the game. He should seen the thing through. And he definitely shouldn't have left his teammates hanging.

Then again, they're in Buffalo. They've already been left hanging.