Golic Announces Retirement : Raiders: After 14 NFL seasons, the defensive lineman is no longer in the team’s plans.

The day that Bob Golic wanted never to come arrived Tuesday.

With tears in his eyes, the 14-year NFL defensive lineman announced his retirement during a news conference at the Raiders’ training camp at Oxnard.

“Football has been my life,” said Golic, a three-time Pro Bowl selection. “I know that I’m old and beat up, but I want to play so bad. But, the time comes where you just have to face it. I think that I’ve been playing too long to deal with just standing and watching. It’s way too hard.”

Golic, 35, joined the Raiders in 1989 after spending three seasons with the New England Patriots and seven with the Cleveland Browns.

“Bob had a great career, and I wish that I could have played with him as a Raider,” Raider Coach Art Shell said. “He was the type of guy who left everything he had on the football field. He always gave whatever he had when he played.”

In his four seasons with the Raiders, Golic was regarded as one of the team’s most popular and quotable players.

“Players have always had a love-hate relationship with the media, and I guess with me, I’ve always been more on the love side,” Golic said. “Why else would I call a press conference? That was my biggest fear--that nobody would come.”

Golic was a solid starter his first three seasons with the Raiders before his playing time was cut considerably last year.

As a key to the team’s run defense, Golic started the first six games. Then, without much warning, Golic was no longer needed. He was deactivated for six of the team’s final seven games.

By the end of the season, Golic clearly was not in the Raiders’ plans, which was difficult for him to accept at first.

“I had hoped and wanted to keep playing,” he said. “I had played 14 years, and 15 sounded like a good number. I was content with ending my career here (with the Raiders), but I was just hoping that it would have been later.”

Golic began his NFL career with New England in 1979 after being selected in the second round out of Notre Dame as a linebacker by the Patriots.

In his three years with New England, Golic started 12 games as a linebacker. His best season was 1981, when he finished second on the team in tackles with 159.

After the Patriots released him following the 1981 season, Golic signed as a free agent with the Browns. It was a move that revived his career because he became a Pro Bowl player as a nose tackle.

“Because I was born and raised in Cleveland, playing with the Browns was a thrill for me,” said Golic, who was named to the Pro Bowl three consecutive years with Cleveland from 1985-87.

Golic played in 97 games with Cleveland before signing with the Raiders as a Plan B free agent in 1989. He played in 153 games and started 129.

“It’s so tough to leave the game for me because football has been everything for me for so long,” Golic said. “I know people say that when it’s time to end your career, that it is easier to dwell on the future than look at the past, but I refuse to do that.

“Playing football has been the most satisfying feeling in my life; to come off the field knowing that you were completely depleted of everything--physically, emotionally and psychologically.”

Golic has landed a regular role on a fall NBC series called “Saved By The Bell: The College Years,” in which he will play a college dorm director.