UPDATE -- March 27: After an interview with ESPN published earlier this week, former Michigan center Jack Miller has clarified that he did not leave the school's football program over head injury concerns.
"Concussions were not really a factor in this decision," Miller has since told The Detroit News in an interview published on Thursday, adding that he was just "burned out."
"I know it makes for a good headline," he said. "I thought about the concussion thing as much as I thought about the fact I have back pain every day. (The story) has blown up into this whole thing, because there's not a lot going on in college football right now."
The original version of this post appears below:
A former Michigan football player, who announced earlier this month his intentions to leave the program.
now says the decision was made due to growing health concerns related to the nature of the sport.
"I'm ready to walk away from it. My health and happiness is more important than a game," Jack Miller, who played center, told ESPN in an interview on Wednesday.
Miller, who would've been entering his senior season as a starting center, said he knows he's already had a few concussions while playing for the Wolverines.
"It's nice walking away before things could've gotten worse," he said, adding later: "I'd be lying if I said that the concussion thing doesn't scare me a little."
Miller said last week that he was leaving the team. However, he did not specify at the time that it was because of head injury and the possible long-term trauma it could cause. Instead, he said he was simply ready to move on and that "football has just run its course for me."
In a conversation with The Bleacher Report published Tuesday, Miller made no comment regarding brain injuries and football, but repeated his reasoning that that he no longer had the drive to keep playing.
...itโs time for me to move on.
All of my goals have been accomplished here. I was able to receive a top-notch education while playing football at the highest possible level.
Because of that, my passion for the game has diminished. I know that you wonโt succeed in this game without a burning passion for it.
Miller's decision comes on the heels of former 49ers player Chris Borland saying he was leaving the sport because of the links between playing football and brain trauma.
Since Borland announced he was leaving the NFL after just one season, he has warned of the dangers of the sport.
"I think football is inherently dangerous and that'll never change so long as we have football," he said this past Sunday on CBS. "Talking about the culture of safety is really irrelevant."