INDIANAPOLIS —"Football is an incredible game. The ultimate team sport. And from High School through the NFL I was fortunate to be on a lot of good ones."
And, with that, Jacob Tamme's nine-year NFL career has come to an end.
The tight end on Thursday officially announced his retirement from the NFL in a lengthy, thoughtful note on his Twitter account:
Tamme was a fourth-round pick by the Indianapolis Colts in the 2008 NFL Draft. He would play the first four seasons of his career in Indy; in 60 games with 14 starts, he caught 92 passes for 855 yards and five touchdowns.
Tamme would go on to play three years with the Denver Broncos and then played his final two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons. In all, he played in 130 games with 36 starts, catching 259 passes for 2,570 yards and 14 touchdowns.
A University of Kentucky product, Tamme made several references to Colts-related figures in his retirement announcement, including (but not limited to) former head coaches Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell, general manager Bill Polian, assistant coaches Clyde Christensen, Tom Moore, Russ Purnell, Ray Rychleski, teammates Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Austin Collie, Anthony Gonzalez, David Thornton, Dallas Clark, Donald Brown, Jospeh Addai, Adam Vinatieri, Pat McAfee, Curtis Painter, Jim Sorgi, Jeff Saturday, Ryan Diem and, last but not least, Peyton Manning.
Manning, according to Vinatieri, once famously (or infamously) kicked Tamme out of the Colts' victory formation, the kicker told the NFL Network.
"He jumps offsides in a critical moment," Vinatieri recalled. "Peyton literally kicks him off the field: 'Get out of the huddle; I don't want you on the field anymore. I can't look at you.' Right? So a couple of series later, (the) game's basically over, we're running the clock out. It's just a matter of taking victory formation and taking a knee. Well Jacob's on our victory formation; he runs back on the field, (Manning) goes, 'No — I told you to get out. You're off the field.' He kicks him out of victory formation, which is just basically taking the snap, taking a knee. And thats how intense Peyton is — he doesn't forget anything."
Apparently there were no hard feelings on Tamme's side, however.
"Speaking of Peyton, there's really nothing I can say," Tamme wrote on Thursday. "No single person made a greater impact on my football career than you. I loved playing the game with you. More than that, I loved the laughs. It was an honor to be your teammate and it's an even greater honor to be your friend."'
