During his press conference Thursday, Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera announced that wide receiver turned tight end Antonio Gandy-Golden is retiring from the NFL. The former Liberty star wide receiver plans to go back to school.
“Antonio and I had a conversation this morning, and he’s going to retire from football,” Rivera said. “He just felt the time was now. He is going to go back to school. He told me he wanted to continue his education and go from there. He’s a heck of a young man. He did a nice job for us. I really do appreciate who he is and who he was for us as a football player and as a young man. Because he’s a bright young man, I really do believe he has a bright future ahead of him and wish him all the best as he goes forward in his life.”
Gandy-Golden was a fourth-round pick by the Redskins in the 2020 NFL Draft, taken 142nd overall. He spent this past offseason gaining weight in order to move from wide receiver to tight end for what would have been his third NFL season. He had one catch for three yards and one carry for 22 yards while appearing in 10 games during his first two years in the league.
His career started with a hamstring injury that left him on injured reserve in October of 2020 though he was placed back on the active roster in December of the same year. In 2021, he bounced between the practice squad and the active roster after being waived during the summer of 2021 before re-signing with the practice squad shortly after. He failed to register a stat in his four games played this past year.
During his senior year at Liberty, Antonio Gandy-Golden had 1,396 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. He became just the second player in school history to record back-to-back 1,000 yard receiving seasons and helped lead the school to its first FBS bowl game and win in the 2019 Cure Bowl.
A two-star recruit coming out of high school, Gandy-Golden transformed himself into Liberty’s all-time leader with 240 career receptions, 3,814 career receiving yards, and 33 career touchdowns.
