Jason Worilds dropped an unexpected bombshell last night. He retired from football. The unrestricted free agent released a statement right around midnight last night.

“I appreciate all of the interest from the organizations that have reached out to us the past few days,” the statement read. “With that being said, after much thought and consideration I have chosen to step away from football as I have opted to pursue other interests.

“I am especially grateful of the opportunity to play before some of the greatest fans in football today. Despite any concern and speculation that may ensue, I appreciate those that are respectful of my decision.”

The Steelers selected Worilds in the 2nd round of the 2010 draft. The team used the transition tag on the outside linebacker last year, a total value of $9.754 Mil. Worilds tied with Cam Heyward for the team high of 8 sacks.

We’re only left to speculate as to why Worilds announced his retirement last night, 8 hours after the start of free agency. A report came out yesterday afternoon indicating that at least one team thought his asking price was way too high.  A source was quoted as saying- “We’re not paying $1 million per sack.”

The Steelers released a statement this morning regarding his retirement. “We respect his decision to retire and thank him for his five years in Pittsburgh. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

One underlying consequence of his retirement for the Steelers is the loss of a potentially higher compensatory pick next year.

The NFL is handing out the weekly fines today, and Steelers OLB Jason Worilds is one of the recipients.

#Steelers pass-rusher Jason Worilds was fined $10,000 for unnecessary roughness for unnecessarily striking an opponent in the head

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 9, 2015

According to Rapoport, Worilds was fined $10,000 for unnecessarily striking an opponent in the head. You probably remember the incident. It was in the 2nd quarter, with just a few minutes remaining. Ravens TE Crockett Gillmore took his run blocking assignment a littler farther than Worilds liked, and, in turn, Worilds hit him across the face.

This is the second time this year that Worilds has received a fine.

Jason Worilds has been fined $16,537 for hitting Carolina QB Cam Newton below the knee during Sunday night’s routing of the Panthers. The hit in question came early in the 4th quarter. Worilds came around the outside, gets held, slips, and hits Newton in the knee. $16,537 is the minimum fine for the first time offense of roughing the passer.

You can see the gif of the play by clicking on the image below.

Last week Ed Bouchette of the Post Gazette wrote that Jason Worilds turned down a long term contract offer from the Steelers. In his morning blog, Bouchette wrote, “Turns out, the Steelers made Jason Worilds a multi-year contract offer awhile ago, sources say. His side did not accept it. I have no idea what that offer was, but I am told that offer stands and they will go no higher, that he either takes it or plays this season for the $9.7 million one-year deal he signed as their transition player.”

The post received lots of attention from national media, and many a story was churned out about it. I’m going to refrain from going off on a tangent about how the sports writing ecosystem works, at least how it pertains to the Steelers. I’ll just say that a lot of it is more about clicks than facts.

Back to Worilds and his offer…or lack there of. Today Trib reporter Mark Kaboly writes that Worilds had no such offer from the Steelers. Here’s what Kaboly wrote about the matter.

“I was told that Worilds was not offered a contract by the Steelers and that there have been no talks between the two sides since Worilds agreed to the transition tag three months ago. It was recently reported that Worilds rejected a contract offer by the Steelers, which remains on the table.

“An absolute lie,” the person said.

It is not unusual for there to be two different stories during contract negotiations. In fact, it’s the norm, so take it for what is worth. Worilds would not comment on his contract situation when I asked, and that’s about status quo for him. Worilds is a very quiet and guarded individual that would never talk about something as sensitive as his contract situation.”

Perhaps both reporters are indeed talking to team sources with knowledge of the subject. There is no indication from either writer who their source was, or if it was even a source who is affiliated with the team, or with player representation- and that’s completely fine. It’s par for the course.

Worilds and his camp hold all the cards in contract negotiations, and have since he accepted the transition tag. Who knows what’s really going on behind closed doors in terms of negotiations, but the transition tag certainly poses an obstacle for the Steelers while trying to work out a long term extension. It may very likely be that the team will let Worilds play out this season as a “prove your worth” year, and wait until 2015 to either transition/franchise him, or negotiate a long term deal.