Frank Ragnow says his aborted comeback attempt in November ended the conversation for good. After retiring from football at 29 a little over a year ago, he said Friday that he is done trying to return and that his body told him it could no longer handle the NFL.

He also made clear why the idea kept pulling him back. Ragnow said he felt guilt watching Jared Goff and his former teammates take hits without him, and that feeling helped drive the attempt to play again even after he had stepped away from the sport.

On Friday in Lake Orion, Michigan, Ragnow was at his annual Rags Remembered Foundation event, where the former NFL starter spoke with the kind of calm that usually comes after a hard decision has finally been accepted. He said the time away from football has left him in a better place, even if the choice to stop came after months of second-guessing.

The clearest reason the comeback never became real was physical. Ragnow said the return effort stalled because of a Grade 3 hamstring strain, the sort of injury that does not leave much room for bargaining. He said he was pushing himself to play, but his body kept giving him the answer he did not want to hear.

That is the part that matters most in his case. Ragnow did not walk away because he lost interest. He walked away because he could feel the cost of staying in the NFL. A little over a year after announcing retirement, he said the attempt to come back only confirmed what he had already been fighting: the body that carried him through his career could no longer keep up with the demands of the game.

His absence was felt in Detroit, and he said he had not been back since learning his physical deal had fallen through. At the same time, he has put a hard stop on any hope of another return. The door is closed now, and the focus has shifted to the work around his foundation, which is built around helping children and adults deal with grief.

The timing of the event gave his remarks extra weight. On Saturday, the foundation is scheduled to host approximately 40 kids for Camp Huddle Up, a reminder that Ragnow’s life after football is no longer organized around whether he can take one more snap. It is organized around what comes next, and this time he sounds finished answering the old question.