Jason Hanson talks about the retired life

Jason Hanson has now been retired for more than two months. This year, for a change, he didn't have OTAs or a minicamp to attend, and he didn't have to spend time taking part in the Detroit Lions' offseason training program. It was a big change for someone who spent more than two decades in the NFL, and Hanson told the Detroit News this week that retirement is "bittersweet right now" since he's still getting used to not being an NFL player.

Hanson also said that retirement "hasn't been too strange yet." It will really probably hit him that he's retired when training camp arrives and he isn't playing. That will be the biggest change to his routine in the summer since he'll get to spend time with his family instead of worrying about camp. He also won't have to worry as much about his nagging heel injury, which has continued to be an issue at times.

"It still bugs me, and actually I get really excited when it bugs me," he said. "And then the days when I’ll work out and I feel good, that’s when I swing like, ‘What’d I do?’

"But it just isn’t right. … I’ve retired. I don’t have any plans of coming back."

Hanson may feel good on certain days, but he's not going to pull a Brett Favre on us. He seems comfortable with the next phase of his life, and the Lions seem comfortable moving forward with David Akers and Havard Rugland competing for the starting kicker job.