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The fact that inevitably, as dave said, someone's going to getetty much on every play. there's 32 cathedrals built to this sport. with los angeles soon to come. so you have here, you know, an entrenched sport that we have to figure out how we're going to address or fix. frankly, the nfl still remains -- i mean, this dates back to when i was working for them. they still remain absolutely, you know, in a different world, a different planet when it comes to this stuff. i don't understand where on earth they think they can get away with just saying that, you know, youth football, we have safer hel...

>> reporter: the announcement stunned 49er fans. >> the sport is important, but it's not more important than the individual players and their families. >> reporter: so far this off-season four players aged 30 or under have retired, including patrick willis. >> i pay attention to guys that walking around and they can't play with their kids. >> reporter: guys walking away is a great reminder that life has a bigger picture. bobby wagner tweeted, no offense to anyone but i'm playing until i can't anymore. i love this game too much. >> one question has been is this a new era to the nfl? and i don't...

>> reporter: so far this off-season, four players aged 30 or under have retired, including patrick willis. >> i pay attention to guys that walking around and they can't play with their kids. >> reporter: guys walking away is a great reminder that life has a bigger picture. bobby wagner tweeted, no offense to anyone, but i'm playing until i can't anymore. i love this game too much. >> one question has been, is this a new era to the nfl? and i don't think we can know that yet. but it does seem like it's a new moment for the league. >> reporter: the nfl says football has never been safer and we c...

As i can play to make this money. how can you walk away? the every day fan is saying you know planning six months and you're being paid all of this money, how can you walk away? it's your brain and quality of life that's most important. >> dave the nfl just issued a statement in the past hour in part we respect his decision and wish him well. playing any sport is a personal decision by any measure football has never been safer and we continue to make progress in rule changes, safer tackling techniques at all levels of football and better equipment protocols and medical care for players. we're ...

I don't think so. it certainly will empower others to do the same to be able to walk away and say it's okay to walk away. i remember the scariest film that i ever saw was that documentary "big hits and broken dreams" talking about the effects of contact sports on long-term health, i know there are times i think about maybe i should have walked away from the game a bit sooner. >> the nfl says they respect boyland's decision and wish him the best. football has never been safer and we continue to make progress with rule changes, safer tackling techniques at all levels of football, better equipmen...