National Football League

Pitcock pulls free from video games

Published Jun. 9, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Former first-team All-American defensive tackle Quinn Pitcock is eyeing a return to the NFL after his career was derailed by depression and video game addiction.

Pitcock had a solid rookie season after being selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the third round of the 2007 draft, but abruptly retired prior to training camp for the 2008 season because of an addiction to the popular game "Call of Duty."

Now he has returned to the field with the Orlando Predators and says his goal is to make it back to the NFL, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

"I'd go to McDonald's for breakfast, order a bunch of food, come home and play for 18 hours into the next day, then crash, sleep for seven hours and do it all over again," Pitcock said of his addiction.

"If I visited family or friends, I timed it down to the last second where I could still play another game."

He said for three months after his retirement he regularly played for 18 hours a day.

"I broke about four games in half, burned them, microwaved them, put a torch to them, letting my aggression out to get rid of them," he said. "But the next day, I was at Target buying another game."

Pitcock has 12 tackles and 3.5 sacks in 11 games for the Predators this season and coach Bret Munsey said it would be a "no-brainer" for an NFL team to give him another opportunity.

"I think he could be better than half the guys on the roster," Munsey said.

The 28-year-old has attempted to return to the NFL before. He was waived by the Colts in 2010 and also failed to get through training camp with the Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions.