Logan Wilson called it because he didn't love the game as much anymore. Preparation has turned into reflection. Take the biggest defensive plays in Bengals history, and he's at the heart of two of them.

"I'll happily take that," Wilson says, "if that's what you're giving me."

That's how Wilson, the do-it-all linebacker, wants to do it one last time. Go out riding the best of his 83 games. Nostalgic that all but seven were with the Bengals.

"We accomplished quite a lot during my time there, and I'm proud of that," Wilson says after posting his retirement about 100 days from his 30^th birthday. "The culture shift with Zac (Taylor) and the other coaches there. I just really enjoyed my time there. It was a perfect fit for who I am as a person coming from a smaller town. It was a blessing to play there for five-and-a-half years."

The Bengals traded Wilson last season to the Cowboys, the team that cut him last month. But he won't trade his moments as a key piece of the Bengals' most successful postseason teams that have a 5-2 record and back-to-back AFC Championship appearances.

The love of it had ebbed, he said. So he walked away when he could.

"I've always had a different perspective. There's just a lot more to life than just football," Wilson says.

Yet he embraces the notion that he'll start getting calls every five years to reminisce about that wild Kings Island thrill ride to the Super Bowl and those three straight wins secured on the last play.

"My daughter was born there, so we'll forever be tied to the city of Cincinnati," says Wilson of Kambry, who turned two last week, a few days before he retired.

He already was if you take the Bengals' biggest defensive plays of all-time.

Rumble in the Jungle.

Safety Vonn Bell's interception in overtime of the 2021 AFC championship game in stunned Kansas City.

Linebacker Germaine Pratt's interception on the last play of the 2021 AFC Wild Card Game at frenzied Paycor Stadium.

Louis Breeden's 102-yard pick-six in 1981 that gave Cincinnati the Freezer Bowl.

Safety Reggie Nelson's interception of Big Ben with 14 seconds left in a Bengals-Steelers elimination game that hushed the Heinz Field jackals.

And …

Yes, Wilson agrees. The 2021 AFC Divisional in Tennessee is the first moment that flashes to him.

Tie game. Third-and-five with 28 seconds left at the Tennessee 40. Faking the blitz, dropping into zone coverage, cornerback Eli Apple tipping Ryan Tannehill's pass, running to the ball (always running to the ball), Wilson running it to the 47, tracking it into his arms, the game over 20 seconds later on an Evan McPherson field goal.

"Right place, right time," Wilson says now, which is exactly what CBS analyst Trent Green said then.

Isn't that what Sam Hubbard said about Wilson about the next moment that Wilson has in his archives?

"The Fumble in the Jungle," Wilson says.

The next year, the Bengals were locked in a vicious Wild Card Game with the Ravens at Paycor Stadium. Another tie game.

The game bleeding into the fourth quarter. Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley staring at third down from the Bengals 1. Tight end Mark Andrews and fullback Patrick Ricard snuggling into him. Wilson recognizing the formation made running back Gus Edwards an afterthought. The sneak was coming.

Like the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, every Cincy schoolkid knows the biggest Bengals defensive play ever happened next.

Huntley tried to stick the ball over the goal line. Wilson knocked it out. Hubbard snatched it and went 98 yards the other way, disappearing into an orange-and-black vortex swimming with sound. Not to mention the winning touchdown.

"Credit Logan Wilson," Hubbard said that night. "Right place, right time."

Wilson laughs now. Credit?

"I don't ever get the credit. But Sam can have his glory," Wilson says. "I just remember after I punched it out, just walking toward Sam as he was running away. I just held my fist up. Such a big moment."

The two snaps crystalize Wilson's run here. Right place, right time. Wilson and Tremaine Edmunds are the only linebackers with at least 11 interceptions in the 2020s. Hizhonor, two-time Super Bowler Reggie Williams, with 16, and original Bengal Al Beauchamp, with 15, are the only Cincy linebackers with more.

"He had everything you would want in a linebacker on and off the field," says former Bengals senior defensive assistant Mark Duffner. "He could run, diagnose, recover. Didn't come off the field."

It was Duffner and Bengals scout Bill Tobin who fell in love with Wilson's right-place-right-time-tape at Wyoming long before the 2020 Senior Bowl. When the Bengals coached the South in hopes of working with LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, they ended up finding another quarterback on the North.

"He was playing against us, but just to watch him every day at practice, we really could see how good he was as a player and as a guy," Duffner says. "Bill and I were so happy when we drafted him. What a great kid. I remember when I called to congratulate him, he was out walking his dog."

Right place, right time? That's where Joey Boese, the Bengals head strength coach, found himself once. He remembers a rehab session when Wilson and wide receiver Tee Higgins were coming back from injury and opening it up with sprints.

Wilson was right there with Higgins. At 21 miles per hour on the GPS.

"Wide receiver speed," Boese says. "He didn't get enough credit for his athleticism. He was 240, 241 pounds, and he could flat out run. For a couple of years there, he was sideline to sideline and making big plays. And a good dude to be around. He was good to everyone in the building."

Wilson remembers another play, too.

Super Bowl LVI. That phantom penalty on him while he was covering Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp on third-and-eight on the Bengals 8 with 1:44 left and Cincinnati leading by the eerie score of 20-16.

When he retired, Wilson reiterated what he said the instant it was called. It was not a hold. But he's not wondering what would have happened on fourth-and-eight. He's thinking about being able to walk Kambry down the aisle, something he began to think about when he got his knee cleaned out late in the 2024 season.

"I started to change my perspective a little bit with life in general," Wilson says. "Starting a family, being smart with my money so that I'd have the ability to walk away on my own terms."

He's also thinking about the Logan Wilson Celebrity Softball Game and how much it means to him. Another reason, he says, Cincinnati is always going to be a big part of his life, a place he expects to visit. Guys like Boese and Duffner are thinking about the game, too.

"Look at all the good things he did in the community," Duffner says. "I mean, that softball game was fabulous."

If you've been watching Wilson, you always knew he had a different perspective. Remember why he got the Joshua 1:9 tattoo just before he was drafted? The wrist bands with the Biblical verse honoring Brooks Anderson kept getting torn off in the middle of the Wyoming defense.

Brooks, the son of Josh Anderson, his close friend who coached Wilson on the football and basketball teams at Natrona County High School in Casper, Wyo., passed at 4 ½ months of sudden death infant syndrome. The Brooks Joshua Anderson Foundation raises money for the SIDS national and local effort, a cause that rocketed with Wilson's softball game.

"When we had our tragedy, (Wilson) was a magnet over at our house," Josh Anderson once told Bengals.com. "He was texting and calling and checking in. Any time he was in town he would be there for hours and hours on end. He played such a major role in our lives. He didn't wait for us to ask."

Even though the Wilsons plan to settle in Colorado, what Cincinnati did for the cause is always going to make it a part of home.

"Tough decision. But I'm at peace with it," says Wilson, who seems to be in the right place at the right time again.