Austin Collie: I'll keep playing until doctor says I can't

Ex-Colt Austin Collie has battled injuries but insists his career is not over. (US Presswire)

Austin Collie has suffered four concussions, is trying to come back from a ruptured patellar tendon, and won't be re-signed by the Colts, who drafted him in 2009.

But the 27-year-old slot receiver insists his career isn't over.

“I'm playing,” he told the Indianapolis Star. “Right now, it would take a doctor to tell me, ‘You can't play anymore.'

“I feel like this is a gift that I've been given, and personally I feel I should still be doing it. That's just me.''

Colts owner Jim Irsay, general manager Ryan Grigson and coach Chuck Pagano met with Collie on Friday and told him he is not in the team's plans for 2013.

“They showed a lot of class,'' Collie told the paper. “I told Mr. Irsay, ‘Thanks for everything, thanks for giving me a shot.'

“To hold that against them wouldn't be fair to myself or them,'' Collie said. “It's part of the business.''

Collie, a fourth-round pick out of BYU, was at a high school Saturday helping his dad run a camp for receivers. When a camper asked where he'd play this season, Collie replied, “I honestly don't know.”

Collie was on his way to a big 2010 season -- he caught 44 balls for 503 yards and six touchdowns in the first six games -- before mounting injuries derailed him.

In Week 3 of 2012, he tore his right patellar tendon and was done for the year. Collie told the paper he's lifting and exercising and that his knee “feels better than it has in the last four or five years.”

Now he must convince an NFL team he'll fully recover, and that he's worth the risk.

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