How to Watch Osi Umenyiora Retirement Press Conference Online

The London native, who also spent parts of his childhood in Nigeria and Alabama, played nine seasons with the Giants before spending two with the Atlanta Falcons, mostly as a backup. “I just couldn’t help myself”. “Hindsight is 20/20. When it was time for me to leave and go to Atlanta I was excited about it, but once I got there I was like ‘Dang!’ You miss everything”.

Umenyiora made 85 career sacks.

The Jets’ interest in Umenyiora would make some sense; they have injuries to players like Calvin Pace and Muhammad Wilkerson, and Sheldon Richardson is suspended for at least the first four games of the season.

Off the field Osi’s relationship with the Giants’ front office was often contentious, as he and general manager Jerry Reese battled back and forth over his contract. According to Giants.com, head coach Tom Coughlin talked about what image he thinks of when he thinks of Osi and his defensive battery mates, Justin Tuck and Michael Strahan; specifically in Super Bowl XLVII, “In my mind, when I think of [Super Bowl] 42, I see 92, 72, 91 walking away with (New England quarterback Tom) Brady laying on the ground”.

“It was an awesome experience”, Umenyiora said. Umenyiora’s unlikely football journey, which started at Auburn High School and blossomed at Troy University, ended with a ceremonial one-day contract and a retirement gala.

The retirement was three weeks in the making, and Umenyiora joked about it. “I wanted a two-day contract”, he said.

His mentor, Michael Strahan, was “what I aspired to be as a player and as a person”.

As was usually the way, Reese won out. The team will broadcast the press conference in real time on Wednesday afternoon. “But we were good friends and we’ll remain friends forever”.

The NFL has hired Umenyiora to work in London. He said his new job hasn’t been completely defined yet, but will involve some broadcasting and some teaching of the game, as the league continues its worldwide push.

He said he received offers to return to the field as recently as this week from NFL teams, although he did not divulge which teams inquired. In a season where the wide receivers couldn’t hang on to the ball and tip drills abounded, Osi Umenyiora regularly delivering game-changing plays went a long way to the Giants finishing with a 10-6 record.

For one last day, he got both.