Seahawks' Ricardo Lockett To Retire

After suffering a serious neck injury last season, Seattle Seahawks receiver Ricardo Lockette will announce his retirement Thursday, the team confirmed Wednesday.

Lockette played in 34 games for the Seahawks over five NFL seasons, finishing his career with 22 catches for 451 yards and four touchdowns. He was also a standout special-teams player.

In Week 8 against the Dallas Cowboys, Lockette was covering a punt when he got hit by safety Jeff Heath. Lockette suffered a concussion, along with disk and ligament damage in his neck.

Lockette posted a couple of thoughts Wednesday on Instagram.

The Seahawks scheduled a news conference with Lockette for Thursday.

During the offseason, Lockette visited with firefighters and paramedics in Redmond, Washington, and explained to them how close to death he was on the football field.

"[The doctors] said if I would have stood up then, the weight of my head -- left, right, front, back -- I would have died," Lockette said in a video he posted on Facebook. "If one of my teammates would have come over and pulled my arm, just barely, I might have died. Or if the returner at the time would have broken a couple tackles, and they would have rolled and fell on me, I would have died on that field. But what saved my life was the trainers, the work that you guys do."