An era of excellence came to an end with N.C. State quarterback Grayson McCall bidding farewell to his football career. Do you know during the 2023 season McCall was making waves at Coastal Carolina? There he was, a three-time Sun Belt player of the year, and throughout his time on the field, he passed around 10,000 yards and 91 touchdowns for the 46 games that he played. His friends and football family have teary eyes, wishing him luck for his life ahead. 

In the latest episode of NBC Sports, host Nicole Auerbach discussed the latest college football buzz with Ohio State legend Joshua Perry. Perry shared his warm wishes to the 23-year-old retiring North Carolina quarterback, Grayson McCall. Grayson shared the heartbreaking news on Wednesday, days after he suffered a head injury during a game.

“This time at Coastal had a lot of people watching games and time slots that wouldn’t typically be watching. He was phenomenal, a great ambassador for the game, as you mentioned there. You know, this is something that I resonate with. I left the game of football because of concussions, and it’s a very difficult decision.”

The young guy went out of the field during a game against Wake Forest on October 5. The saddening event occurred when two defenders hit him as he scrambled quite early in the first quarter. We all saw how his helmet came off, and he almost lost possession of the pigskin. The next thing we saw was McCall lying on the field as a defender returned the fumble.

A post shared by Grayson McCall (@1gray0)

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“And the thing that is hard about it is, you know, a lot of times when guys get banged up and they have to leave, it’s like, you know their knees still hurt, or their shoulders still give them trouble at some point like you feel fine and you look fine, but you know that you can’t, you can’t go out there, and it’s a dangerous thing to do.”

Perry understands the gravity of the decision. It’s not easy to accept that you won’t be doing the thing you love the most. In such moments, it’s vital that the players have the support of the community around them to help them have a smooth transition out of the game. “But I like the idea of a young person saying that I’m going to think about what the next chapter of my life looks like, rather than trying to hold on to the dream. So a ton of respect there, and hopefully everything is good for him in the future,” Perry said.

Joshua Perry embraced the incident with such dignity and announced retirement to follow the next chapter of his life. For your information, McCall had also faced injuries previously as well, and he was even absent for two September games because of injury and the guy did his best to recover from it. But this time he just decided to hang his cleats up!

Grayson McCall’s last message to the football world

After officially announcing his retirement, the QB took to his Instagram handle and shared an emotional message. “I have battled injuries my whole career, but this is one that I cannot come back from,” McCall said. “Brain specialists, my family, and I have come to the conclusion that it is in my best interest to hang the cleats up.”

“I have done everything I can to continue, but this is where the good lord had called me to serve in a different space.” It’s tough to give up on your dreams, especially when he was standing on the edge of shifting to the league. If you remember, he once said in an interview that it was his childhood dream to play like the guys he grew up watching on TV.

In this sensitive moment, the good part is that McCall is with his family, and under the warmth of his loved ones, his pain from leaving his comfort space might be relieved a bit. Besides that, with McCall’s incident, we learned a bitter reality of the country’s most popular sport: along with all the shining deals and fame, injuries and permanent damage also go hand in hand.