Blake Bortles, one of the most notable football players to jump from the University of Central Florida to the NFL, announced on a recent podcast that he quietly retired from professional football a while back.

While he never won a Superbowl as starting quarterback, he did take Tom Brady, the greatest of all time, to the limit in the AFC Championship game. And he did it up the road with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

After leaving the Jaguars, he jumped around from team to team, but the important part is that the fans seemed to appreciate him everywhere he went. He was mostly celebrated on social media for a video where he simply announced that the first thing he did each morning was use the bathroom, instead of trying to be cool.

Another big deal is that Blake Bortles never got in serious trouble. We never saw his mugshot splashed on ESPN or The Athletic for doing something stupid.

So, yeah, Bortles did just fine.

It’s just unfortunate that he didn’t plan better. He could have been Congressman Blake Bortles from Oviedo in that newly drawn Seminole County seat. There were so many new candidates, he could have won the high percentage on name ID alone.

And let’s not forget the memories that Bortles gave us at UCF.

When you add it all up, he did a pretty good job representing Orlando.

I honestly wished he would have made a formal announcement. He was trending on social media this morning. The NFL fans obviously care.

And at the end of a career isn’t a healthy exit and a friendly nod from the people that watched you play, what it’s all about?