FARGO — It had been awhile since Billy Turner returned to the North Dakota State campus. The veteran offensive linemen who will go down as one of NDSU’s greatest players walked around the new indoor football facility this week being the same Billy when he practiced outside from 2010-13: laid back, talking to anybody and taking in NDSU’s Pro Day like a proud father.
He may, in the near future, have more time on his hands. Turner hasn’t announced he’s retiring after 10 years in the NFL, but he sounded like a man who could see it from here. He’s currently a free agent after spending last season with the New York Jets.
“Ten years is a long time in this league,” Turner said. “It wears on you. Obviously a lot of injuries, nicks, bruises and all types of things and you have to consider that at one point or another. If it’s going to be detrimental to life after football or if one more season is worthwhile, we’ll see, but anything is possible.”
If he does call it a career, it would be the fourth-longest tenure of any former Bison player in the NFL. Linebacker Steve Nelson played 13 years with the New England Patriots from 1974-87 while cornerback Tyrone Braxton was in the league for the same number ending in 1999, all but one with the Denver Broncos. Phil Hansen played 11 years, all with the Buffalo Bills, retiring in 2001.
In a world of greater movement with free agency, Turner was more nomadic. He was taken in the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft by Miami and spent most of three seasons with the Dolphins. He ended 2016 with the Baltimore Ravens and Denver, signing with Denver for the next two years.
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Green Bay made Turner a four-year, $28 million offer and that was home from 2019-21. He went back to Denver in 2022 and finally with the Jets last season.
When Hansen retired, he pointed to having to spend most of the week, if not all of it, in readying his body for the following game. It’s easy as a rookie. By his final season, Hansen said he barely was ready to go the following Sunday.
Turner can relate.
“It takes a long time,” Turner said. “You finish the game and you’re not necessarily ready for the following game until honestly like the day of that game at times.”
It doesn’t help, Turner said, that the NFL has scheduled more games on different days like Thursday or Saturday in addition to the Monday night matchups. Or a night game that’s on the opposite side of the country.
“It’s all things you have to consider because as the world of an athlete continues to evolve, if you’re on a plane for five hours or a Thursday game, you cut your recovery time in half and your body’s not the same,” he said. “Every minute, every second counts. Everything you consume counts. Your sleep counts. It’s tough and all of that as a whole takes a toll on your body. Ten years of that adds up.”
Turner came to Fargo on Tuesday to see old Bison friends like new head coach Tim Polasek, co-defensive coordinator Grant Olson and defensive ends coach Carlton Littlejohn and to lend his support to the NDSU players who went through Pro Day drills. Former Bison offensive linemen Jalen Sundell and Jake Kubas have been working out at the Training Haus facility in the Twin Cities, a place Turner has an allegiance with.
“I wanted to see this new facility and support some of these kids in the next step of their career just like I was 10 years ago,” Turner said. “It’s nice to come up and see how the transition has happened and to see the next generation, if you will, of linemen and NDSU athletes as a whole.”
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