He played five of his six years in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s only 26 years old but Rashard Mendenhall is walking away from millions of dollars and the NFL life while he still can walk away. He cited the physical demands of playing in the NFL but insists he still has a lot of passion for the game. Mendenhall did not hold a press conference but did write an insightful and detailed explanation for his early retirement in a blog for HuffingtonPost.com Here is the link to his explanation: