From the time he started playing organized football as a seventh-grader growing up in Pittsburgh, the game came naturally to Navy senior center Lirion Murtezi, who enjoyed the built-in advantages that genetics provided.
 
Throughout his two-year introduction at the Pop Warner level, Murtezi's gifts – an unusual combination of impressive size, strength, athleticism, game aptitude and a nasty streak – allowed him to dominate one-on-one matchups regularly as a lineman on either side of the ball.
 
"I'd have to say the sport of football came kind of easy to me. You are the biggest guy, so you get to do a lot of the damage [at the rec level]. That was a fun time," recalls the 6-feet-3, 315-pound Murtezi, who went on to become a rarity at North Hills High School, playing at the 5A level in football-rich Western Pennsylvania.
 
Not only did Murtezi make the varsity as a freshman at North Hills, he started all four years, the first on defense, the last three as a two-way lineman at guard/center and defensive tackle. He went on to earn First-Team All-State honors from the Pennsylvania Sports Writers Association and was named to the All-Big 56 Conference First-Team as a senior. Over his last two seasons, Murtezi was a team captain.
 
By the fall of his senior year, Murtezi, a native of Kosovo who had emigrated at the age of five to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh with the rest of his immediate family, had committed to the Naval Academy.
 
"Lirion was more mature than a lot of other kids. The way he played the game with the passion he had was contagious. Guys gravitated to him," says Pat Carey, who is in his 11^th season as North Hills head coach and his 30^th overall coaching football at the school. "At his position, there was a way we expected a guy to pull and trap somebody and a way to knock him down. Lirion was a coach pleaser and a real good teammate."  
 
"It was easier to dominate in high school than in college," Murtezi says. "In college, things like [proper] technique and footwork and using your hands [effectively] all become very important. The game becomes a lot more challenging."
 
Murtezi, who had never suffered a significant injury at North Hills, has come to know plenty of trying challenges at the Naval Academy, in the classroom, in military matters and on the football field.
 
The physical cost of playing a sport as demanding as FBS college football has exacted a high price that Murtezi has grappled with for much of this year, while dealing with persistent, increasingly agonizing back pain.
 
Since late 2021, when Murtezi suffered a torn ACL in the final home game of the year that cut short his breakout sophomore season, he has had three surgeries, including ankle surgery in January and an appendectomy in July. He has also dealt with mononucleosis.
 
Murtezi, who says he has finally accepted the need to turn a page in his life, after team doctors strongly advised him to do so, announced Monday on Twitter that he was retiring from football.
 
"It stinks. In my senior year, I wanted to go out with a bang," says Murtezi, who was determined for months to keep fighting through his back ailments, as the important anchor of Navy's offensive line. "But if you don't have good health, you have nothing in life. That's what it comes down to."
 
Since the spring, Murtezi has suffered at various levels of intensity from a degenerative back condition that Murtezi thinks may have first shown itself during his senior year of high school.
 
By the end of spring football practices, his back problems had worsened greatly. Agron Murtezi, Lirion's older brother, revealed that fatty tissue had developed around his brother's spinal cord, thus increasing the threat of a serious, possibly catastrophic injury.
 
"I've got pinched nerves, disc problems. Sleeping can be really tough," Murtezi says. "Over time, [the back pain] has gotten pretty severe. Any time I hit someone hard I'd feel pain down the nerves in my back and my legs would go numb. It's at its worst now."
 
After hardly practicing in preseason camp while recovering from his appendectomy, Murtezi, a co-captain wearing number 68 in honor of the late David Forney, made his 10^th career start and appeared in his 25^th game in Dublin, Ireland, in the season opener against Notre Dame.
 
For Murtezi, nicknamed "Bear" and deeply appreciated by his teammates for his unwavering toughness and firm commitment to helping the Midshipmen win in his final season, it would be his last game.
 
On several occasions during Navy's loss to the Fighting Irish, Murtezi collided with Notre Dame defenders and temporarily lost feeling in his legs. His teammates and coaches had no idea what he was going through, as he limped off the field and returned multiple times, but did not finish the game after taking about 25 snaps.
 
In the middle of the following week, as the Mids resumed practicing during a bye to get ready for their home opener against Wagner, Murtezi participated in an individual sled drill. Senior offensive tackle Sam Glover watched his teammate and good friend stop practicing abruptly in the middle of the drill.
 
"I knew Lirion was dealing with lots of discomfort. He had trouble doing certain lifts when we worked out during the summer.  But he always pushed through it. I had no idea it was that bad," Glover says. "[Murtezi] exploded into the sled once or twice. After that, he just didn't practice. It was pretty shocking to see how it all escalated so fast."
 
Not long after that aborted practice, Murtezi met with team doctors and a specialist from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. They tested him and came to one conclusion. He had to give up football, or he would be taking an unacceptably dangerous risk. And he had to start losing the weight that linemen typically shed after finishing their careers, in order to reduce the tissue pressure on his spinal cord.
 
Depending on his progress, Murtezi might be able to avoid back surgery. He already has dropped nearly 15 pounds. His goal is to end up at and maintain a 250-pound frame. Murtezi is on pace to graduate from the Naval Academy in May with a degree in political science. He aims to serve in the information warfare community, possibly as an intelligence officer.
 
In the meantime, Murtezi already has transitioned into working with the football team as a student-coach. Working around his class schedule, he attends offensive and position meetings, spends every day on the practice field working with players and still travels with the team.
 
"I had known since before the Wagner game [his playing days were over]," Murtezi says. "I was basically one hit away from being paralyzed from my back down. The first few days [as a non-player] were kind of rough. But I'm fortunate to still be part of this team and to witness what they're going to accomplish this year."
 
"[The loss of Murtezi] breaks your heart and it hurts our team, because Lirion was the bell cow of that [offensive line] unit and he loves the game so much. But it's not worth risking your health and your future," Navy head coach Brian Newberry says. "He's done a great job of coming to grips with what's happened and has immediately owned his role as a captain. I really appreciate how he has handled everything."
 
"We're going to miss [Murtezi's] knowledge on the field, not having that stability in the center," senior inside linebacker Will Harbour says. "But knowing he was at that point where he couldn't push through [the pain] anymore, when it becomes dangerous, that is scary."
 
"You hate to lose such a good, tough, versatile football player and such a great leader. I feel terrible for Lirion," adds Navy assistant head coach Ashley Ingram, who tutored the centers and guards throughout Murtezi's playing days. "He's going to be a great father and husband and he will contribute other great things to society. Lirion's story is remarkable. It's a great American story."
 
The youngest of four children of Ismet and Fatime Murtezi, Lirion Murtezi was born in the Kosovo capital of Pristina in 2001, two years after the Kosovo War (1998-99) ended, following the intervention of NATO with key assistance from the United States.
 
The U.S. government welcomed families from the war-torn country to America as refugees in 1999. The Murtezi family included the parents, Agron, then 11; Verona, then two years old, and an older sister.
 
After living for several months in New Mexico, the Murtezi family returned to Kosovo following the end of the war. By the time Lirion was born, the parents had concluded that Kosovo, with its post-war economy crushed, was not a desirable place to stay. In 2003, Agron, his father and older sister were admitted in the U.S. as permanent residents, settling in Pittsburgh. Three years later when Lirion's immigration papers were ready, he, Verona, Fatime and a grandparent joined them in Pittsburgh.
 
While Ismet worked as a truck driver, Agron (now 35) took on a dual role as a big brother and a father figure to both Verona (now 26) and Lirion (now 22). The parents still speak mainly Albanian, while the children learned to speak very good English while growing up in Pittsburgh.
 
"With my Dad working as a truck driver, Lirion was my brother and my son, at the same time," Agron Murtezi says. "I was at every doctor's appointment, every parent-teacher conference, every football practice. Living here for those three years before Lirion, Verona and my mother came to America really helped me learn the language well enough to teach my brother how to speak it. I was like the bridge between him and his teachers and counselors at school."
 
"We were fascinated by America. I remember the first time we went through a drive-thru, with different size drinks," Verona Murtezi recalls. "We had the obvious language problems, but we made new friends. We grew up with soccer [in Kosovo]. We learned American football by watching Lirion play."
 
Agron introduced Lirion to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who won the Super Bowl two months after Lirion arrived in America as a kindergarten student in November 2006. One of Agron's favorite pastimes was tossing a football with his little brother in a local park. Agron recalls the day a middle school teacher suggested to Lirion, then a large sixth-grader, that he try playing football.
 
Murtezi visited Navy a handful of times, including game-day trips in the fall. The four-hour drive appealed to him. So did the scenic Severn River that you could see on the Yard. But the thought of getting a top-flight education for free, then giving something back to America struck a chord with him. So did the idea of being a member of the football family. The brotherhood.
 
"Just being able to graduate from an institution as great as the Naval Academy is awesome. The academy can be very difficult at times. When you're younger, you don't have the perspective you have now," he says.
 
"It's about transitioning from the football life to what you're going to be doing for the next five years [as an officer] and after that. I am excited about the next step in this journey and seeing what the future holds."