Junior Seau "retires" on Showtime.

[Mark Farinella]

Patriots' linebacker Junior Seau apparently told the crew on Showtime's "Inside the NFL" program that he is going to stay on his surfboard in the future, and retire from the NFL after 20 seasons.

That shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Seau made five tackles in his last game, the playoff loss to the Ravens, but he barely got off the bench for many of the games he spent on the Patriots' roster this year.

Seau was brought into the Patriots' locker room to lend some leadership to young players who, it was felt at the time, had enough talent to make a deep run into the playoffs this year. We now know that the defense was a lot farther away from championship caliber play than it was presumed at the start of the season, and it's likely to be in line for a wholesale rebuilding next year.

Here's a transcript of parts of the Showtime show as provided by the network:

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: Well are you going to hear any more of his (Bill Belichick) speeches or are you finished? This is 20 years in the NFL…

JUNIOR SEAU: Cris, I’m surfing. I’m going to go surf. Yeah Warren, I’m not going to give you another speech. It’s all over with the speeches. Whatever happens, I can say, honestly say, that that probably was my last game.

COLLINSWORTH: So you’re going to retire after that one.

SEAU: Yeah, that, that’s going to be my last game.

(On accountability for loss to Baltimore)

SEAU: Tom (Brady) will be the first to tell you that that wasn’t his best game. It probably wasn’t even his second to the best game. But at the same time we are all accountable. We are all accountable to what we do on every given Sunday…You have to be accountable. He’s going to be accountable to what he did, but there’s no one, no one can be exempt in that locker room as to what happened to us against the Baltimore Ravens. And that’s talking the coaches, offense, defense and special teams. So, we lost to the Baltimore Ravens because they are a better team.