The Boston Globe reports RB Corey Dillon had left the window open, ever so slightly. Six months ago, he said he was planning to retire, barring an unexpected itch to play come football season. There have been no itches. "Now the window is closed, there is no doubt in my mind," Dillon said last week. "I haven't announced it publicly, but I will not play football again."Dillon is leaving the game, in many ways, on his own terms. After 10 hard-charging seasons, he believes he still has something left in his tank. "If I really wanted to, I think I could run for 800, 900 yards. I'd share carries, or take the load if needed," he said. "But for me, the risk is way greater than the reward. I don't feel as if there is anything else for me to do. I hit the 10-year plateau. When I came into the league in '97, I said that if I was to play 10 years, that's where I wanted to be, and I'd call it quits and do something else. I won't name names, but I know people who have played 10, 12, 15 years, and they can barely walk. To me, I never wanted to envision myself like that." That is why Dillon, who lives in California and has become a regular on the golf course, resisted interest from at least two NFL teams. The Bills attempted to fly him in for a free agent visit, as did the Titans. "The only way I would ponder getting on a flight is if the Patriots were in the Super Bowl, it was fourth and 1 on the goal line, and they needed me to pound it in. That's the only thing that would get me to put the pads on." Might he reconsider if the Patriots needed him before that point, perhaps if Laurence Maroney sustained an injury? "As far as I'm concerned, that game in Indy [in the AFC Championship] was the last game I played. Period," Dillon responded. "But I'll tell you what, I would have loved to have played with WR Randy Moss. That would have been pretty nice. But it was a year too late."
