Calling it quits is never easy

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From a distance, it's always so easy.Jerry Rice? Hang 'em up!M.J.? Don't come back!It's fun to conduct other people's careers for them, especially famous people. It's a vicarious thrill, like telling a rich guy how to spend his money.It's a little harder up close. Harder to tell Denver Broncos veteran safety John Lynch he can't cover anymore when he and his wife, Linda, are handing out awards and scholarships to young achievers in his adopted home, doing just what we always say we wish athletes would do.Harder to tell Rod Smith he can't get open anymore when he's giving his face and name to the Broncos blood drive or demonstrating every day what it means to be a team player.Harder to tell Colorado Avalanche veteran Joe Sakic he's about to turn 39 as he and Debbie plan their annual August shindig to benefit Food Bank of the Rockies (this year featuring comedian Josh Blue).Harder even to tell Sakic's teammate, Peter Forsberg, that his troublesome right foot is more of a pain to us than to him, remembering him raising money for the Denver Children's Advocacy Center.Rewarding kids who do the right thing, fighting disease, feeding the poor, helping abused kids -- you don't even have to remember what great players they were to want them to stick around.But it helps if you do. Nobody who watched the Avs win their two Stanley Cups wants to see Captain Joe go, in part because he's one of the greatest players in NHL history, in part because it would mark the end of an era we would rather not admit is over.If you watched Forsberg register 14 points in nine regular-season games after being out of the league for 10 months, it's hard to make the case he can't play anymore. But how distracting or harmful is the continuing soap opera about whether he will be able to practice or play on any given day? It's an amorphous issue, which doesn't stop everybody from having an opinion.Smith's recalcitrant hip took everybody off the hook, but it was already hard watching him become an afterthought in the Broncos offense toward the end of the 2006 season. Like Sakic, he represented not only a championship era but also a rare standard of individual accomplishment.Smith's great pride as a self-made player, an undrafted free agent who became the Broncos' career receiving leader, made it hard for him to see the end coming. The magic of that championship chemistry stayed with him and he greeted every year as a chance to recapture that sublime feeling.Lynch is a slightly different case because his greatest years were spent in Tampa. He wasn't here for the Broncos' championships, and other Broncos safeties, notably Steve Atwater and Dennis Smith, were better in their primes than Lynch has been somewhat beyond his.The other day, giving out those awards to kids on behalf of his foundation, he admitted, with a laugh, taking a "haircut" from the Broncos.Beneath the laugh, you could sense his injured pride at the salary cut, but there aren't many safeties in the NFL who will turn 37 next season.Lynch will be given the opportunity to compete for a starting job, but there are no guarantees. He still presents a problem for opposing quarterbacks as a blitzing pass rusher, but not in pass coverage. That was part of the reason why the departed coordinator Jim Bates' defensive scheme failed last season. By keeping Lynch off the line of scrimmage, it failed to make use of what he does best.For each of these players, the decision to call it a career is complicated by pride in their own ability and love of a game they have played as long as they can remember."It's very difficult to be honest with oneself at the end of your career," former big-league pitcher David Cone once observed.Sakic's is perhaps the most difficult decision because it is clear he can still play. His career most closely resembles that of former Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman, who played 22 seasons for one franchise, gracefully transitioning from an elite player to a complementary, inspirational one at the end.Sakic has played 19 seasons for a single franchise, most of them as an elite player. He could easily play two more and give himself a chance to represent Canada at his hometown Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, a goal he mentioned after the NHL lockout three years ago.The question is whether his pride will allow him to make the transition Yzerman made, to admit that younger players must take more of the load now.Even Smith has yet to formally retire. Although he has come off the Broncos roster and his hip surgery makes coming back almost a pipe dream, he has not quite come around to closing the door on that dream.Lynch will give it another shot in a season that could prove uncomfortable all the way around if he does not win a starting job.Sakic and Forsberg will think about it a while, trying to figure out if chasing the ghost is still worth it to them.However awkward the endings, we've been lucky to have these four in this town, as players and as people. The best way to show them the respect they've earned is to let them make their own decisions in their own time.And to understand that of all the difficult things pro athletes do, letting go of greatness is the hardest.(Contact Dave Krieger of the Rocky Mountain News at kriegerd(at)rockymountainnews.com.)