Pennington To Tackle Football From The Broadcast Booth

Miami Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington plans to step off the football field and into the football broadcasting booth. Pennington, who turns 35 this week, made it clear he's not retiring, but only evaluating where he's at physically. Chad left open the possibility of returning to the field in a year. Here is more from Doug Farrar of Yahoo! sports, followed by more blogging from Scott.

Miami Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington, who has suffered enough injuries in his 11-year career to be named Comeback Player of the Year in two different seasons, has decided to take a year away from the field and pursue other options — primarily a new gig as a TV analyst for the 2011 season.

"I'm actually going to take this year off, get healthy and do some work for FOX Sports," Pennington told the Charleston Daily Mail on Friday. "I'm going to evaluate things and see where I am physically."

Pennington has had more surgeries than Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair combined. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but you get my point. The young man tore his shoulder early in 2009, had another serious shoulder injury in the season-opener of 2010, and tore his ACL in a pick-up basketball game in March. And, those are just injuries from the last 20 months. He's had a plethora over his 12 year career.

If Pennington is a natural fit in the broadcast booth, I would love to see him stay there. He's always been an honest, well-spoken, and charismatic guy. His football IQ is extremely high. He should be a great color commentator. Many may ask, amidst all the injuries, why not just officially retire now? Because he's a competitor. When Chad officially retires, he'd like it to be on his own terms.