And thus completes one of the swiftest and at the same time longest falls from grace in sports history: Daunte Culpepper has retired. Yes, it was just four years ago that he was a near-MVP, with 39 TD passes and a sick 110.9 QB rating. Yes, he’s just 31. And yes, he’s still blaming other people for his downfall. From the AP:

Daunte Culpepper, who starred for the Minnesota Vikings before suffering a major knee injury in 2005, never returning to his past Pro Bowl form, retired from the NFL on Thursday.

Culpepper completed 64 percent of his passes in a nine-year career, with 142 touchdowns. He tried to resuscitate his career with the Miami Dolphins in 2006 and the Oakland Raiders last season, struggling in both of those stops, and wasn’t in training camp with any teams this year.

“Since I was not given a fair chance to come in and compete for a job, I would rather move on and win in other arenas of life,” Culpepper said.

You see the nearly immobile QB close to being sacked in the end zone by his former team (picture), but we’ll always remember the double-threat second-year player who ran for three touchdowns in the second half of his first start to beat the Bears. We were there. Times were good. Then they weren’t.

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