'I'm Back': 15 Athletes Who Came Out Of Retirement

For most athletes, retirement is supposed to be the finish line. After years of practices, surgeries, road trips, and putting their bodies through punishment most of us couldn’t imagine, eventually there comes a point where walking away makes sense. The problem is that turning off the competitive switch can be a lot harder than turning in a jersey.

Aaron Donald is finding that out right now. The Los Angeles Rams legend announced his retirement in March 2024, ending a ridiculous 10-year run that included 10 Pro Bowls, eight first-team All-Pro selections, three Defensive Player of the Year awards and a Super Bowl championship. For a while, Donald seemed completely comfortable on the other side. As recently as November 2025, he spoke publicly about being at peace with retirement.

Then the Rams went all-in. Los Angeles’ acquisition of Myles Garrett helped get Donald thinking about what it might look like to line up next to another generational defensive force, and those thoughts have gotten increasingly serious. Donald has been putting himself through an NFL-level training regimen, has worked out at the Rams facility and, according to Sean McVay, is legitimately trying to figure out whether his body is ready for another season. As of August 14, Donald has not officially announced a comeback, but this is clearly much more than fans throwing around a fun hypothetical.

And if Donald eventually decides he misses terrorizing quarterbacks too much to stay home, he’ll join a pretty legendary fraternity. Retirement has never stopped some of sports’ biggest names from getting that itch again — sometimes leading to championships, sometimes ending awkwardly and sometimes producing an even better second act than anyone could’ve imagined. Here are 15 athletes who decided retirement could wait.

Michael Jordan

There really wasn’t another choice for the first option. Jordan retired from the NBA in 1993, pursued professional baseball and then delivered arguably the most famous comeback announcement ever with two words in March 1995: “I’m back.” He returned to Chicago, and after shaking the rust, helped the Bulls win three more consecutive championships from 1996 through 1998. He’d later retire again and make another comeback with the Washington Wizards in 2001.

Tom Brady

Brady somehow managed to make retirement feel like an extended vacation. The seven-time Super Bowl champion announced he was finished on February 1, 2022, only to reverse course 40 days later and announce he was returning to Tampa Bay because there was still “unfinished business.” Brady played one more season, leading the Buccaneers to the playoffs before retiring again in February 2023.

George Foreman

Few comeback stories in any sport can touch Big George’s. Foreman retired from boxing in 1977 and spent a decade away from the ring before returning in 1987 at 38 years old. Seven years later, the comeback went from curiosity to history when the 45-year-old knocked out Michael Moorer, becoming the oldest heavyweight champion ever at the time.

Magic Johnson

Magic Johnson’s shocking 1991 retirement after announcing that he had contracted HIV looked like it would end one of basketball’s greatest careers far too soon. After playing in the 1992 NBA All-Star Game and with the legendary Dream Team that summer, Johnson eventually made a real NBA comeback during the 1995-96 season, returning to the Lakers nearly five years after his final regular season game. His return lasted 32 games before he retired for good that summer.

Mario Lemieux

Lemieux was already in the Hockey Hall of Fame and an owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins when he decided he wasn’t finished playing for them. After retiring in 1997, Lemieux returned 44 months later in December 2000 and immediately looked like he’d barely left, recording three points in his first game back. He finished that season with an incredible 76 points in only 43 games.

Michael Phelps

After the 2012 London Olympics, Michael Phelps retired as the most decorated Olympian ever and seemed to have nothing left to accomplish. Two years later, he was back in the pool. His return eventually led him to the 2016 Rio Games, where Phelps added five gold medals and one silver to his already absurd collection before walking away again.

Rob Gronkowski

Gronkowski retired following the 2018 season after years of injuries had taken their toll, but there was apparently one man capable of getting him back into shoulder pads: Tom Brady. When Brady left New England for Tampa Bay in 2020, Gronk followed him out of retirement. The reunion worked immediately, with Gronkowski catching two touchdowns in Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl LV victory before playing one more season and retiring again in 2022.

Brett Favre

Nobody quite treated retirement announcements like Brett Favre. The Packers legend initially retired in March 2008, then changed his mind months later and eventually landed with the New York Jets. He briefly retired again after that season, then returned with the Minnesota Vikings in 2009, where he put together one of the best seasons of his career and led Minnesota to the NFC Championship Game.

Marshawn Lynch

Beast Mode has technically made this list more than once. Lynch retired after the 2015 season, famously posting a photo of his cleats hanging from a wire, then returned in 2017 to play for his hometown Oakland Raiders. After another layoff, Seattle called him late in the 2019 season because of a battered running back room, and Lynch returned for the Seahawks’ regular season finale and playoff run.

Eric Weddle

This might be the ultimate “we need you for a few weeks” comeback. Weddle had been retired for nearly two years when an injury-plagued Rams secondary convinced the veteran safety to return during the 2021 postseason. He wound up playing all four playoff games, including every defensive snap in Super Bowl LVI, and walked back into retirement with the one thing missing from his résumé: a championship ring.

Kim Clijsters

Kim Clijsters initially retired from tennis in 2007 at only 23 years old, started a family and then decided two years later that she still had plenty of tennis left. Her comeback couldn’t have gone much better. In just her third tournament back, Clijsters entered the 2009 US Open as an unseeded wild card and won the whole thing, eventually adding two more Grand Slam singles titles during her second act. She later attempted another comeback beginning in 2020.

Lindsey Vonn

Injuries fully pushed skiing legend Lindsey Vonn into retirement in 2019, but a successful partial knee replacement changed what she thought her body could still do. At 40 years old, Vonn announced in 2024 that she was rejoining the US Ski Team after nearly six years away from World Cup racing. The decision ultimately led her all the way back to the sport’s biggest stage.

Ricky Williams

Ricky Williams stunned the Miami Dolphins when he abruptly retired shortly before training camp in 2004 at only 27. The running back returned to Miami the following year and, after another absence from the NFL, eventually rebuilt his career. Williams’ best post-retirement season came in 2009, when the then-32-year-old rushed for more than 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Martina Hingis

Martin Hingis was only 22 when injuries led her to announce her first retirement from professional tennis in 2003. She returned to the tour in 2006 and worked her way back into the world’s top 10 before stepping away again. Years later, Hingis made yet another return — this time concentrating on doubles — and added several more Grand Slam championships to an already Hall of Fame résumé. Her stop-and-start career is another example of just how difficult it can be for elite competitors to stay gone for good.

Deion Sanders

Even Prime couldn’t stay away forever. Deion Sanders stepped away from the NFL following the 2000 season, then spent three years out of football before joining the Baltimore Ravens in 2004 at age 37. Sanders played two seasons as a reserve defensive back, picked off five passes and showed that — even after three years away — some of that Prime Time magic was still there.

Whether Aaron Donald becomes No. 16 remains to be seen. At 35 years old, with nothing left to prove and a first-ballot Hall of Fame résumé waiting whenever he’s eligible, he doesn’t NEED football. But put Donald on the same defensive line as Myles Garrett with a Rams roster built to chase another Super Bowl, and suddenly staying retired might be a whole lot harder than he expected.

RELATED: Here Are The Black Starting Quarterbacks In The NFL In 2026