Former Miami Dolphins first round pick Ted Ginn, Jr. retires from the NFL
By Brian Miller
Ted Ginn, Jr. was destined to depart the Miami Dolphins the second his name was read by Commissioner Roger Goodell in the 2007 draft.
Ginn suffered from his name. He wasn’t Brady Quinn who Dolphins fans expected the team to draft and when they didn’t, it was all over. Making the draft pick worse was then head coach Cam Cameron walking into the Dolphins draft party tent to announce the pick and being booed instead. Cameron claimed that Miami fans would grow to love Ted Ginn and the whole Ginn family resulting in one of the worst moments in franchise history and a saying that has lived through all these years.
Today, Ted Ginn is no longer an NFL football player as he has announced his retirement. Why is that significant? While Ginn never reached a “superstar” status that many would expect from a 9th overall selection, he has managed to carve out a 14-year career.
Ginn was more electric in the return game than he was as a receiver. Over his career, he caught 412 passes for 5,742 yards and 33 touchdowns. Only five of those came while with the Dolphins. His most successful seasons came with the Carolina Panthers where he posted over 2,000 yards receiving in his three years. He called it a “very very tough decision”.
Ginn would play for a total of six NFL teams and last year was with the Bears where he caught only three passes.
Ginn was never going to stick with the Dolphins. Cam Cameron was a lost head coach and when Bill Parcells took over the operations of the team a year later, Cameron was gone, Randy Mueller was gone, and a new era was being ushered in. While Miami didn’t get much out of 2nd round QB John Beck who was out of the league in two years, Brady Quinn didn’t find much NFL success either.
With Ginn now out of the NFL officially, only Greg Olsen, Adrian Peterson, and Marshawn Lynch remain from the first round of that class. Lynch has not announced his retirement and both Peterson and Olsen played last year. Lynch has not played since 2019.
Ginn never let the fans or the media get under his skin and instead, just continued his career quietly, just like his soft-spoken announcement at the conclusion of his career.