540MINUTES

By TIM REYNOLDS

MIAMI (AP) — Daunte Culpepper, who starred for the Minnesota Vikings before a major knee injury in 2005 curtailed his career, retired from the NFL on Thursday.
Culpepper completed 64 percent of his passes in a nine-year career, with 142 touchdowns. He tried to resuscitate his career with the Miami Dolphins in 2006 and the Oakland Raiders last season, struggling in both of those stops, and wasn't in training camp with any teams this year.

"Since I was not given a fair chance to come in and compete for a job, I would rather move on and win in other arenas of life," Culpepper said.

Culpepper has spent the past months hoping for chances with any team, including the Green Bay Packers, saying just last week he'd accept a backup job there behind Aaron Rodgers. The Packers had Culpepper in for a workout before this year's draft, with apparently little contact since.

"No matter what I did or said, there seemed to be a unified message from teams that I was not welcome to compete for one of the many jobs that were available at the quarterback position," Culpepper said.

Daunte Culpepper retires from NFL....