Ed Cunningham has resigned from his job broadcasting college football for ESPN due to concerns over player safety.

“I take full ownership of my alignment with the sport,” he said. “I can just no longer be in that cheerleader’s spot.”

Cunningham was an offensive lineman for five seasons in the NFL and paired for most of the last decade with Mike Patrick on ESPN.

“In its current state, there are some real dangers: broken limbs, wear and tear,” Cunningham said. “But the real crux of this is that I just don’t think the game is safe for the brain. To me, it’s unacceptable.”

Cunningham became known for his criticisms toward some of the physical dangers of the sport.

“I could hardly disagree with anything he said,” Patrick, who will have a new broadcast partner this season in Cunningham’s absence, said in a phone interview. “The sport is at a crossroads. I love football — college football, pro football, any kind of football. It’s a wonderful sport. But now that I realize what it can do to people, that it can turn 40-, 50-year-old men into walking vegetables, how do you stay silent? Ed was in the vanguard of this. I give him all the credit in the world. And I’m going to be outspoken on it, in part because he led me to that drinking hole.”

Cunningham displays none of the Alzheimer’s-like symptoms that cripple many of those who are later found to have C.T.E., which can be diagnosed only posthumously. 

“I was being paid a really nice six-figure salary for not a lot of days of work, and a live television gig that, except for nonsports fans, people would beat me up to take,” Cunningham said. “I’m leaving a job that’s great. It’s not kind of good. It’s great.”

Cunningham initially told ESPN he was stepping away to spend more time with his family and because of his workload as a film and television producer.