Frank Ragnow gets 100 percent real on shocking Lions 2025 retirement

As the Detroit Lions are looking to make some major noise in 2026, the team last year received a shocking announcement from a long-time player, offensive lineman Frank Ragnow. With the Lions star in Ragnow retiring from football a year ago and trying to come back before a failed medical exam, the former player reflects on the events.

Speaking to the media on Friday during an event in Michigan, he would say how, after he announced his retirement, he was “trying to will myself to play” and return, but his “body was telling me otherwise.”

“To shoot it to you straight, I was trying to will myself to play, and my body was telling me otherwise. And I was just in like a paralysis if you will,” Ragnow said, via ESPN. “I did not plan on retiring in the middle of the summer, believe it or not. I was trying to get like, ‘You can do it,’ for the guys, the fans … like, it’s who you are.”

Former Lions star Frank Ragnow speaks more about his experience 

Announcing last June that he had retired, Ragnow tried to make a comeback in November with the Lions, but the medical exam came back to reveal a Grade 3 hamstring strain.

“But it’s just like I was uncomfortable, and it’s one of those things where you have a couple kids, and I don’t want a sob story,” Ragnow said. “I’m going to be completely fine and everything, but it’s one of those there where like, ‘is the juice worth the squeeze’ thing, and to me, ultimately it came down to that decision, and obviously, I struggled with that decision too.”

Ragnow would consider those turn of events a “learning experiment” in trying to come back.

“At least I can say I laid my head on the pillow at night and said I tried. I tried for the team. I tried for the fans. And it just wasn’t meant to be,” Ragnow said.

At any rate, the Lions are looking to fill the void of Ragnow in the 2026 season after playing seven seasons of productive football.

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