© Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
When Joe Staley was forced to retire last week, he admitted he was as surprised as anyone. He had intended to continue playing, but after postseason doctor’s visits, Staley informed Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch that he’d need to retire, mainly due to a neck injury.
Initially, Staley had resisted getting into the details of the injury in his post-retirement press conference, but said that he had severe neck and back pain which reached an almost untenable point in the Super Bowl.
On Tuesday, Staley joined Taylor Lewan and Will Compton on the “Bussin With the Boys” podcast, and revealed the extent of that pain. Lewan asked Staley whether he was dealing with neck stiffness, stingers, or both.
“It was all of that stuff,” Staley said. “It was a bunch of stingers… It got to the point where in the Super Bowl, I’d make contact with my head, with anybody, I’d have from the base of my neck down through my back, I’d have just a zing, and my arms would go numb. Basically I had herniations at a bunch of different levels and really severe stenosis. And then the [doctor] was like, ‘If you’re going to have to continue to play football, you’re probably going to have to have neck fusion surgery on multiple levels.’ And I was just like, ‘I’m 35 and I’ve got kids. I don’t want to not be able to turn my neck for the rest of my life.”
Listen to the full interview below. Staley’s answer above starts around the 30:50 mark: