After a nine-year career and one memorable interception, Ravens nose tackle Michael Pierce has announced his retirement from the NFL.

“After much prayer, talking to my family, just going through the grind, man, and being satisfied where I am, looking forward to doing other things in life, I’ve decided to call it a career,” he said on the Sports Spectrum podcast on Wednesday. “It’s been a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful nine years.”

Pierce, 32, played eight seasons in the NFL — he opted out during the COVID-19 season in 2020 — after signing with Baltimore as an undrafted free agent out of Samford in 2016. All but one of those was with the Ravens.

He had a year remaining on his contract but said injuries had taken a toll.

“I don’t have any gaudy stats I was chasing,” Pierce said on the podcast. “I’ve had a ton of injuries.

“I found joy in my job. I loved my job. But once you’re in the trenches for so long and those injuries start to mount up, you’re kind of trying to prevent the next one. Instead of walking on that field with joy toward the end of that season last year, I was more like, ‘I don’t need to get hurt.’ You don’t want to play without that child-like joy without that excitement.”

Those injuries included what Pierce revealed on the podcast to be a torn quad that he said he suffered while running in a straight line last offseason. He opted not to have surgery, and other injuries continued to pile up for the 6-foot, 355-pound run-stuffer.

Pierce suffered a calf injury during a Week 8 loss to the Cleveland Browns that landed him on injured reserve and caused him to miss five games.

When he returned, his snap count somewhat diminished. Still, he provided one of the most indelible if not unbelievable images of Baltimore’s season when he intercepted a pass from Bailey Zappe in the closing moments of Baltimore’s regular-season finale and AFC North title-clinching victory over the Cleveland Browns and began rumbling downfield before quickly dropping to a knee at M&T Bank Stadium.

Coach John Harbaugh called it “the most crazy, amazing play in NFL history.”

“There’s a long history of turning big guy interceptions into memes,” Pierce said after the game. “So at the risk of ruining a career play like that for myself, it was time to go home. The bus was out of gas.”

Now it’s for good, but Pierce left his mark.

He spent his first four seasons in the league with the Ravens before signing with the Minnesota Vikings in 2020. Pierce returned to Baltimore in 2022 and said he told the team that it would be his last contract with them.

A stout defender in the middle of the Ravens’ and Vikings’ defense, he finished with 238 tackles and had 9 1/2 sacks over 99 career games (59 starts). He also helped Baltimore finish in the top five against the run in five of his seven seasons there, including last season when the Ravens ranked No. 1 against the run.

His retirement was not terribly surprising.

In addition to being hampered by injuries, a helmet was left at Pierce’s locker for teammates to sign the day after the Ravens’ season ended with a divisional round loss to the Buffalo Bills. Pierce was also scheduled to make $1.255 million in the final season of a two-year, $7.5 million contract.

If the Ravens process his retirement before June 1, they will save $666,000 in salary cap space with a dead cap hit of $2 million for 2025, according to Russell Street Report. If they do so after, they will save $2 million in cap space for 2025 with a dead money charge of $667,000 and a $1.334 million charge in 2026.

On the podcast, Pierce thanked several people, including Ravens executive vice president and former general manager Ozzie Newsome.

“Not a lot of people felt I could play,” he said. “But Ozzie and his staff … they gave me a chance when not many people were willing to take a chance on me.”

He also thanked current general manager Eric DeCosta, who brought him back for his second stint with Baltimore, as well as Harbaugh, quarterback Lamar Jackson, outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy and defensive lineman Brent Urban, as well as former Ravens Terrell Suggs and Brandon Williams, whom he referred to as his “brothers.”

“We’ve been so close to chasing a Super Bowl,” Pierce said. “You can keep pursuing that dream and pursuing that dream, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s gonna happen. I obviously hope that they achieve that dream next year.”

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