<h3>ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP)</h3>
<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/team/buffalo-bills/67039" target="_blank">Buffalo
Bills</a> starting right tackle <a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/player/brad-butler/401627" target="_blank">Brad
Butler</a> announced his retirement on Thursday.
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Brad Butler.
Rick Stewart</span>
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The news comes as a surprise to the Bills after the 26-year-old
Butler just completed only his fourth NFL season.
Butler
majored in government studies at Virginia, and spent the 2008 offseason
interning at Kemp Partners in
Washington
DC with former and late Bills quarterback and congressman Jack Kemp.
"My passion for education, country and community is something that I
am ready to devote my full attention to," he said in a statement
released by the team. "I believe the best way to pursue these spheres of
interest is to step away from the game of football at this point in my
life."
Butler started all but two of the 33 career games he
played in after being drafted in the fifth round of the 2006 draft. He
was limited to just two games in 2009 after sustaining a serious knee
injury in Week 2 against Tampa Bay.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Buffalo-Bills-Brad-Butler-retires-at-26-021810