Doug Baldwin appears to announce retirement on Twitter just days after being cut by Seahawks

Not many NFL players get to spend their entire career with one team, but it seems Doug Baldwin will be able to say that after he appeared to announce his retirement on Sunday. 

Although Baldwin never actually used the words "retirement," the receiver did seem to indicate that he was done with football when he sent out a tweet that featured Jon Snow from "Game of Thrones." 

"My watch has ended." 

The tweet was sent out just three days after the Seahawks cut Baldwin with a "failed physical" designation.

On one hand, it's possible Baldwin sent out the tweet because he's a huge "Game of Thrones" fan and he just wanted to be part of the hoopla for the series, which aired its penultimate episode on Sunday. On the other hand, viewing the tweet as a retirement announcement makes way more sense because Baldwin sent it out after writing a lengthy letter to his younger self on Sunday night that went on for nearly 20 tweets. 

(You can read the entire letter by clicking here and heading to his Twitter profile). 

In the letter, Baldwin points out the adversity he had to overcome to get to the NFL and the friends he made along the way. The former Stanford player went undrafted out of college, before signing with the Seahawks in May 2011. 

The 30-year-old also pointed out that he almost quit football after his junior year at Stanford. 

It's a good thing for the Seahawks that Baldwin didn't quit, because he ended up putting together one of the most underrated receiving careers in NFL history. During his eight seasons in the NFL, Baldwin caught 493 passes for 6,563 yards and 49 touchdowns. That scoring total includes a 2015 season when he led the NFL with 14 touchdown catches. 

The two-time Pro Bowler also came up big multiple times for the Seahawks in the postseason. In 13 career playoff games, Baldwin caught six touchdown passes and topped the 80-yard mark a total of five times. Baldwin also scored a touchdown in each Super Bowl he played, including the 43-8 win the Seahawks had over Peyton Manning's Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII. 

Baldwin missed three games due to injury in 2018 and by the time December rolled around last season, he admitted that he was definitely on the downside of his career. 

"Oh, I am on the downside of my career. I'm 30 years old," Baldwin said at the time.

If Baldwin had decided to return in 2019, he would have had to make a comeback from a sports hernia surgery that he underwent this offseason. Instead of dealing with another year of pain, Baldwin decided it was time to hang up his cleats for good, which means, yes, it looks like his "watch" in Seattle has finally come to an end.