Former Washington Huskies Defensive Tackle Forced to Retire

The Washington Huskies football team saw the departure of several of their most talented players from last season via the 2026 NFL Draft.

One of those players was defensive tackle Anterio Thompson, who was selected in the sixth round of the draft by the Atlanta Falcons.

Thompson, who joined a team led at quarterback by fellow former Husky Michael Penix Jr., was unable to get on the field in the preseason or regular season after he was placed on the active/non-football injury (NFI) list at the beginning of training camp July 25 and moved to the reserve/NFI list Aug. 31, 2026.

Thompson revealed the reason for his absence earlier this week in a post on his official Instagram account Thursday, which was screenshotted and shared across social media. According to the defensive tackle, he's dealing with a genetic mutation in his spinal cord that he had no knowledge of before being told by medical professionals. He received the news May 8 and was told he would never play football again. That information came less than two weeks after he heard his name called in the draft April 25.

"I've been better than anyone would be in my situation," Thompson said in his Instagram story. "As a football player, you know one day you'll have to hang up your cleats, but you just hope it's on your terms. ... It's hard to explain what it feels like to go through the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in (a) matter of seconds."

Thompson had an eventful career before he found his way to the Pacific Northwest in 2025. He played one year with community college Iowa Western in 2022, transferred to the Iowa Hawkeyes in 2023, transferred against to Western Michigan ahead of the 2024 season and transferred to Washington for his final year of college ball in '25.

In his lone year on Montlake, the 6-foot-4, 310-pound defensive tackle played in all 13 games and started three. He finished his final year of college football with 30 total tackles (17 solo), including 2.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and two passes defended.

Thompson posted a final comment on his situation in an Instagram story post Saturday, seemingly offering his last statements on his apparent retirement.

"The post I posted Thursday wasn't a cry for help or me asking for sympathy," Thompson shared on Instagram. "I just want to lay that part of me to rest. Football was everything to me, I just knew regardless of how bad the world was around me, (that) I had football. This is my last post talking about this publicly as I don't want to bring any more attention to this (than) it needs. I have no further comments."