There are two types of sports fans: Those who have no problem comparing professional athletes to people with “normal” or “regular” jobs; and those who insist that pro athletes cannot be compared to 9-to-5ers.

One facet that falls in favor of the don’t-compare-sports-to-regular-jobs crowd is the concept of retirement.

For the majority of employable people, retirement happens in their 50s or 60s, maybe older. For the majority of pro athletes, retirement happens in their 30s. If they’re lucky, they can hang into 40s. If they run into some bad luck, they might be finished in their 20s. Millions of kids wish to be athletes when they grow up. And yet one cold irony of getting that dream job is that it could all be over before you’ve reached the prime of being a grown-up.

Some legendary athletes were at the center of will-they-or-won’t-they retirement stories in the last year — a few of them less serious than others:

• Serena Williams revealed her plans to retire from tennis in an article she wrote for Vogue magazine in August 2022. The greatest women’s player of all time then had her final match the next month at the U.S. Open, bowing out of the sport at 40 years old.

• Tom Brady first announced his retirement from the NFL in February 2022, changed his mind a few weeks later, played one more season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in which he set a few more quarterbacking records, then announced his retirement again (for real, he says) in February 2023 at 45 years old.

• Aaron Rodgers teased the idea of retirement in each of the last two NFL offseasons; the 39-year-old future Hall of Fame quarterback kept the sports world waiting for his most recent decision, then pushed the Green Bay Packers to trade him to the New York Jets to (presumably) wrap up his career.

• LeBron James used his end-of-season press conference in June to float the possibility of retiring from the NBA. A couple months later, while accepting an ESPY award, the 38-year-old announced he’d be returning to the L.A. Lakers for his 21st pro season.

In each of those cases, fans and media had plenty to say about whether the aforementioned greats should retire — and/or how they should retire — with a large chunk of those opinions rooted in their own standards and expectations for the personal and professional lives of people they don’t know.

It’s one of those areas where sports and regular jobs don’t align. Fans want athletes to retire on top of their game (or close to it), and the media will tear down those who don’t. Brady, for example, led all QBs in pass completions in 2022, a year after leading the NFL in passing yards in 2021. And yet he was constantly accused of being washed-up and advised to retire because he was no longer the best QB in the league, and the Bucs weren’t considered serious Super Bowl contenders.

It’s hard to find other professions where it’s expected for you to only stay on the job as long as you’re one of the best in the world and performing at your peak. (Maybe surgeons, pilots … and sandwich artists.) Society generally applauds employees who stick with their craft long after their best days have passed them by. That actually expands to sports when you consider coaches, broadcasters, front-office executives and the like. But the athletes who work on the field of play are expected to walk away when they’re still more than capable of being great.

Athletes who continue to compete past their prime are for some reason tasked with protecting the memories of their fans. (“I don’t want to see them go out like that,” they’ll say.) Athletes who retire earlier than expected are encouraged to keep at it, even if they’ve lost their passion for the sport. (“But they have a lot left in the tank,” they’ll assume.)

The truth of the matter is that pro athletes should play their sport for as long as they want, as long as someone is willing to pay them. If Aaron Rodgers still wants to play football five years from now and is still able to earn a roster spot at 44 years old, even if that’s as a backup QB in the USFL, he should play. He shouldn’t worry about upsetting fans who can’t imagine seeing him on a different team or in a different role than what they’re used to.

One exception to that rule would be combat sports. Boxers, mixed martial artists, kickboxers and the like are actually risking their lives if they fight for too long. (One could say the same for football players, but pro football teams don’t make room for sentimentally keeping dangerously aging players on board.) And there’s always some fight promoter somewhere willing to book a fighter with a recognizable name against that fighter’s best interest.

In a story that didn’t make as many headlines as LeBron and Serena, 30-year-old UFC veteran Kevin Lee announced his retirement from mixed martial arts on July 11, a few days after suffering a submission loss to Rinat Fakhretdinov inside of one minute. The match was Lee’s first since he revealed publicly that he’d converted to Islam.

“It’s been 12 years, 12 long years of me being the best fighter I can be, and a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication to trying to be the best fighter in the world,” Lee said in an Instagram video. “When I look back on it, I had a hell of a career, I fought a lot of tough guys, some of the toughest guys in the world, I always put up a fight, I never backed down, and always challenged myself to do things that I didn’t think I was capable of doing. The last three years have been rough, especially on my body. It’s been a lot of injuries, and honestly that’s one of the main factors of me making this decision.”

While Lee is still young for a pro fighter, if his body is breaking down, it might be the right time to retire. Also, competitors in his field need to be totally committed and focused mentally.

“I’m proud that I went out on my shield, I’m proud that I stood up in there and went out on my own terms,” Lee said in his retirement announcement. “But at this point, I’ve got to think about more than just myself, and I think that my skills and the time and the energy that I’ve put into this sport, I can put into something else and God willing, all glory to God, he’s going to lead me down a different path, the right path, where I can use my skills to help people. I think if I dedicate myself and give just as much hard work to doing something else, the sky’s the limit.”

It’s the “something else” that also separates retired pro athletes from people who retire in their 60s and 70s. For the older set, retirement means looking forward to relaxing, not working anymore, and enjoying their golden years. For athletes who retire young, they’re looking at a longer road ahead, and — given how competitive they tend to be — they may not be ready to slow down. Not every athlete retires with enough money to be set for life. At some point, many will have to work again. What are the odds that what they do next will provide as much enjoyment and security as playing the sport they love?

If sports fans truly respect and appreciate what athletes do for their entertainment, they can allow these competitors to finish what they started on their own terms.