Charles Woodson will retire, so start the Hall of Fame clock

Charles Woodson is the type of player who shouldn’t even have to wait five years for his call to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He’s in a special class.

Woodson, one of the game’s all-time greats who has a strong case to be the greatest defensive back in NFL history, will retire at the end of the season. That gives us two more games to appreciate the longtime Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers defensive back. Thursday night will be the final home game for Woodson, and maybe the last home game for the Raiders in Oakland, making it an emotional night all around for the fans there.

There are football fans who are graduating high school this year who weren’t even alive when Woodson became a household name. In 1997 he won the Heisman Trophy in one of the more memorable votes in the award’s history. He beat out Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning to become the first primarily defensive player to win the Heisman. No other defensive player has won it since. Michigan won a split of the national title that year.

Woodson was drafted fourth overall by the Raiders in 1998. He has made eight Pro Bowls and three first-team All-Pro teams. He was the 1998 NFL defensive rookie of the year and the 2009 NFL defensive player of the year. In 2010, he was a huge part of a Packers team that won a Super Bowl. He has checked just about every box a great player could hope to mark off.

The latter half of Woodson’s career made him a lock for the Hall of Fame. Woodson, 39, is one of only three defensive backs 35 or older in the NFL this season, and he won AFC defensive player of the month for October. He has a good chance to make a Pro Bowl this season, and he would be the oldest defensive player to ever make a Pro Bowl team.

Woodson, who is tied for fifth all-time with 65 interceptions, could have kept playing. He has had an excellent year for a young, improving Raiders team. Despite shoulder issues, he has five interceptions this season. But playing until he was 40 wasn’t in the cards. Woodson said it hit him the morning before the Raiders played the Detroit Lions on Nov. 22 that this would be his last season, according to Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle. Tafur wrote that Woodson said he had a hard time getting the words out when he told his teammates on Monday.

After two more games, the Hall of Fame clock starts ticking for Woodson. He’s a virtual lock as a first-ballot choice. It’s too bad such a fun, incredible career had to end.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab