Dwight Freeney on His Return: 'I Can't Turn It Off'

Dwight Freeney is one of the most honest and introspective human beings I've ever known. The answer he gave when I asked him why he is coming back to the NFL reflected both of those qualities and is telling about how hard it is to leave the NFL behind.

"It's hard to turn off. I can't turn it off," Freeney told me after he signed with Arizona this week. "What people don't get is that football becomes a part of you. It becomes really addictive. The thing with me is that I felt like I still had something left in the tank. It's toughest to be out when you think you can still play, and I think I can still play.

"There's also just how much I love football. Really love it. People don't get that either. I have enough money. I'm not playing for that reason. I came back because I really love it. I know there will be a time when I have to give it up. Not now. I can't walk away now."

Then he laughed. "I'm in great shape," he said. "It's almost like I don't want to waste it."

Freeney will go down as maybe the best pass-rusher of his generation. He will waltz into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He's accomplished so much. Why come back to the Arizona Cardinals? His words above are among the more eloquent you will read on the power and draw that is the NFL to many of its players.

We think sometimes that athletes are just about the money. Some are. Some, like Freeney, who is playing on a one-year contract, are about more than that. Freeney is about the game. The money, the prestige, the stardom—no one in Freeney's position comes back for that.

Freeney has come back because of addiction and love. Addiction to football. Love of football. He's back despite knowing the dangers of things like chronic traumatic encephalopathy and what the violence does to his body. That love overpowers all.

Gregory Bull/Associated Press

It's a love that few of us can understand. Most of us don't know love for something that doesn't possess warm blood and a heartbeat. Football is a sport, but the love players like Freeney have for it burns intensely. You think you comprehend that love being a fan. But you have no idea.

Freeney knows he isn't the same guy who went to seven Pro Bowls, was AFC Defensive Player of the Year in 2005 and racked up 111.5 career sacks. "I'm not the 55-plays-in-a-game guy any longer," he said. "I know that. I'll let the young guys handle that. Maybe 25 plays now. I'll do what I can."

Did anyone close to Freeney tell him to not come back?

"Some people close to me said, 'Your body gets so beat up,' " said Freeney. "They're not going to tell me, 'Don't play.' They're going to just make sure I'm thinking it through."

Now, there are limitations, understandable ones, to football love. Other teams contacted Freeney, but they weren't exactly winning franchises, apparently (he wouldn't name them).

"I didn't want to go somewhere and lose," he said, "get my body beat up for nothing."

Totally understandable.

So here is Freeney again. After 11 seasons in Indianapolis and the past two in San Diego, the last with just 10 tackles and 3.5 sacks, many thought his career was over, but he didn't.

"I walked away from last season feeling as good as I ever have physically," he said.

During the offseason and into the season, Freeney worked out and stayed in shape. He and Cardinals coach Bruce Arians knew each other from when both were in Indianapolis in 2012 and have stayed in touch.

Rick Scuteri/Associated Press

Freeney texted Arians several times during the offseason. Once, Freeney texted him from the golf course. "Get me off this course," Freeney told Arians. "My swing is going downhill."

"Just stay in shape," Arians told him.

Then the call from Arians eventually came.

"Are you ready to get off that couch?" Arians asked.

Freeney was. He did. Here he is. Again.

"I'm too competitive to walk away now," he said.

Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.