Champ Bailey wants former teammate Wes Welker to quit football

Champ Bailey has the utmost respect for Wes Welker, it appears.

Bailey added he understands why Welker wants to keep playing, as the 34-year-old has yet to win a Super Bowl.

“This thing is no joke”, Bailey said.

But one of his former teammates hopes that he uses his best judgement and “hangs ’em up”.

Former Washington Redskins and Denver Broncos cornerback, Champ Bailey, went on Fox Sports 1 and said that he hopes Wes Welker will decide to retire. Welker, who signed a two-year, $12 million deal with the Broncos before the 2013 season, saw his role diminish in 2014 after he suffered a concussion in the preseason – his third in roughly a nine-month span after two in 2013 – and serving a two-game suspension for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.

“I do not want Wes to continue playing since I am scare after having seen him get a concussion”, Bailey said. Which is why Bailey, who retired prior to last season, would like to see Welker do the same. And for him to have to worry about that at a young age that he is now? He has also played for Miami and New England during his career attaining 890 receptions for 9,822 yards and fifty touchdowns in his career. “He still has that hunger, I just don’t want to see it”.

But with multiple documented concussions (plus who knows how many undocumented ones, along with countless sub-concussive hits), the scrappy, undersized receiver might not hold up long. But Welker still is a free agent and coming off a season in which he caught just 49 passes – his fewest since 2005 – so maybe he should take Bailey’s advice and call it quits. The NFL has a concussion protocol in place in an attempt to identify, treat, and medically clear players that become concussed during a game.