The fight is over for Chris Best.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders' veteran offensive lineman retired Thursday. Best, 33, played his entire 10-year CFL career with the Riders, winning two Grey Cups (2007, '13).
Best didn't play a down last season. A double sports hernia kept him on the sidelines when the 2016 campaign started before a hip issue prevented a return to the field.
"With the help of our medical staff, I've been able to play a bunch of games," Best told reporters during a news conference at Mosaic Stadium. "My hips haven't been holding me back up until this year.
"I first got diagnosed with a sports hernia in 2009 and I've just been fighting and fighting. But I can't fight through it anymore."
Saskatchewan selected the six-foot-four, 320-pound Best in the first round, No. 4 overall, in the 2005 CFL draft out of Waterloo. The Calgary native played in 114 career regular-season games with the Riders.
Best spent four seasons at Duke before transferring to Waterloo to obtain his masters degree in 2007. He appeared in seven career playoff games and three Grey Cup contests and was named the Riders' top lineman in 2011.
"I want to congratulate Chris Best on a successful 10-year CFL career," said Jeremy O'Day, Saskatchewan's assistant vice-president of football operations and Best's former teammate. "I had the opportunity to work with Chris as a teammate and then as an administrator over the past decade.
"His level of intensity, competitive attitude, and will to win made Chris a great player. We wish him continued success in his next endeavour."
Best has made Regina his full-time home with his wife, Emily, and their three-year-old daughter, Libby. Best has been working as a mechanical engineer full-time in the off-season.
"I'm extremely proud I've been a Roughrider for my whole career . . . it's been incredible to be here for 10 years," he said. "I look forward to the next chapter of my life here in Regina."
The Riders used six players at right guard in Best's absence last season and therefore would appear to have multiple options on how to replace the veteran lineman. But Best admits it will be an adjustment no longer playing the sport he took up in high school.
"It's been hard, obviously," he said. "I've had a little bit of time to come to grips with it based on talking with my doctors and everything.
"I've defined myself as a football player for more than half my life now and it's going to be a real change, a real adjustment. There's going to be a bit of mourning, but luckily I have a strong family behind me and that's going to help me with this adjustment."
