T.J. Peavy Medically Retires
Peavy sits on his football-career ending news for two weeks before publicly sharing.
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According to his Instagram post on Tuesday, T.J. Peavy’s football career has come to an end after suffering an injury during the second half of the Jacksonville State game.
Peavy, in a social media message, said:
I don’t even know where to start, other than saying these last couple of weeks have been some of the toughest times of my life mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. On October 03, I received news from the doctors that changed everything. Due to an injury, I was not only losing my senior year of football but my entire football career. This was the last way I wanted to go out, and if I am being honest, I have been really confused and upset about why this had to happen… I’ve competed in football for as long as I can remember and have put my all into it, so having it all of a sudden taken away from me, has made it hard to accept and figure out what I am going to do without it. Thankfully my identity is not in who I am as a football player, my Identity is in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This doesn’t make things any easier to get through and it doesn’t make the pain go away but knowing God's truth has helped me get through this tough time. I’m grateful that I’ve been able to play the game of football for as long as I have and continue at the collegiate level. I know God has something else in store for me on the other side of this. I just wanna thank all my coaches, teammates, family members, and friends who have all helped me along the way as well as reached out during this tough time. With all of that being said…. goodbye football. Ocho out
Peavy, from Fayetteville, Ga. (Sandy Creek HS), was initially a walk-on transfer from Air Force in 2019 where he was a cornerback, and EMU’s system gave Peavy a shot breaking in as a nickel. He became a regular contributor to the team by 2020 when he played in five games, then 10 games (8 starts) in 2021, and all 13 games last year (7 starts).
For his 31-game career (16 starts), Peavy recorded 113 tackles (57 solo, 4 for loss, 1 sack), 5 pass breakups, and a fumble recovery. This year, Peavy had 18 total tackles, 1 TFL, and a pass breakup.
Peavy’s loss is certainly a big loss for the defense that leaned on guys like him to make big stops, much like he did in the red zone against Minnesota. Not only is Peavy done for the year, but returning corner Joshua Scott was already ruled out for the season with an injury of his own.