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Brent Grimes almost didn't return to the NFL. USA TODAY Sports

Brent Grimes is one of the best cornerbacks in all of football, having notched 17 interceptions in the past four seasons. So, the Buccaneers definitely would've missed him had he retired in the offseason. 

According to Grimes, he almost did retire. And if he had, he would've pursued a career in the NBA. Luckily for the Buccaneers, he decided against a switch in careers.

On Wednesday, Sports Illustrated published a lengthy feature on Grimes and his always vocal and controversial wife, Miko Grimes. The entire feature, which was written by Jack Dickey, is filled with some incredible nuggets -- like the story of how Brent and Miko met, how Miko purposely got Brent cut by the Dolphins, and how Miko texts Brent at halftime of every game with her scouting report, to name a few. 

One of those nuggets: how Grimes nearly retired to take a shot at an NBA career.

From SI's story:

In the off-season, though, Brent did consider retiring and trying out for the NBA's developmental league—or, as Miko puts it, "going to a real league." Says Brent, "The NFL doesn't have a cool vibe. They make everyone look the same, with their shoes and socks the same way." He says that whenever he does retire, he'll join a bunch of rec basketball leagues, if not the newly branded G League, and he'll never play any kind of football again.

Miko goes further. "This sport is weak," she says, citing the "f----- up contracts and dirty owners." She says she fears that many of the women in her shoes will one day "be feeding their husbands through straws." She cites what she believes to be a rampant problem of domestic violence; she says she knows from talking to other wives around the league that the situation hasn't improved since the Ray Rice tape.

So, Miko probably wasn't lying when she tweeted this last summer:

Now, I've never seen Grimes play basketball, so I can't really say for sure if his career switch would've worked out. But let's just say that it probably would've been difficult for a nearly 34-year-old, 5-foot-10 football player to make a successful transition to the NBA. 

Meanwhile, by staying in the NFL, Grimes can make sure he finishes his stellar career on a high note. In his 10-year career, he's been to four Pro Bowls and has collected 30 interceptions. Plus, he now finds himself on a team that sees itself as a Super Bowl contender after they landed DeSean Jackson in free agency and O.J. Howard in the draft. If anything, retiring after leaving the Dolphins would've been the worst possible timing.

As for the other points Miko raised, well, she's not entirely wrong. NFL players certainly don't make nearly as much money as NBA players, as this summer has so clearly demonstrated. Football is an inherently violent game that has been linked to CTE. And even after the Ray Rice incident, we still saw the Cowboys sign a player like Greg Hardy, who is now out of the league entirely.

Again, the entire story is well worth a read, as it perfectly captures Brent and Miko's relationship. Here's another nugget about the time Miko got Brent's permission to be disrespectful to the Dolphins on social media in order to make sure he got cut from the team last year:

Presumably plenty of wives have gotten their husbands traded or released. Miko is the only one who will brag about it. "People say I got him cut with my mouth," she says. "Duh! That was the goal!" According to Miko, the Dolphins had told Brent he had to take a pay cut; if he declined, they would wait until other teams used up all their cap space and then release him. (A Dolphins spokesman says that these discussions never happened.) At home, Brent said he'd sooner retire. But Miko wasn't going to let that happen—instead she would get him run out of town by going "as wild as possible on social media." Her version of what happened next: "[Brent] said, 'Go for it.' I got his full permission to be as disrespectful to the Dolphins as I wanted to be. And I threw in Tannehill because I don't like him or his wife."

A sample of her tweets near the end of the 2015 season:

And then there was the time she went on a racist rant against the Dolphins AFTER he was already cut.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but here's where I note the Dolphins landed Adam Gase. Gase wound up coaching Ryan Tannehill to his best season and became a legitimate Coach of the Year candidate by getting the Dolphins into the postseason. So, the Dolphins seem to be doing all right without Grimes and Grimes is also doing just fine without the Dolphins. 

Of note: The Dolphins host the Buccaneers in their season opener on Sept. 10.