Andrew Luck’s Sudden Retirement Shows the Toll of Being a Professional Athlete
The Colts QB did what’s best for him physically, mentally, and emotionally.
On Saturday night, during the Indianapolis Colts third preseason game against the Chicago Bears, ESPN’s Adam Schefter dropped a bomb on the football universe — Colts starting quarterback Andrew Luck was retiring.
Luck had just returned from a torn labrum which kept him out of the entire 2017 season to lead the Colts to a 10–6 record and a playoff appearance in 2018, with Luck being selected to his fourth Pro Bowl and winning Comeback Player of the Year.
Yet, after suffering another injury setback — in the form of a high-ankle issue which cost him much of the offseason and ruled him out for the preseason, Luck, at age 29, decided to call it quits.
Luck, the #1 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, will finish his career with 23,671 passing yards, 171 passing touchdowns, and a 53–33 record as a starter. His Colts made the playoffs in each of his four Pro Bowl seasons, reaching as far as the AFC Championship Game in the 2014 season.
Jacoby Brissett, the team’s starter during Luck’s absence in 2017, will start for the Colts moving forward.
If you haven’t seen it already, I recommend watching his retirement press conference which was intended to take place on Sunday but was moved to after the Bears game due to the news breaking early.
The full press conference is a heartbreaking image of a man who loves his teammates and loves the game of football, but can simply no longer take the strain it puts on his body and everyday life.
Luck, in what he called the hardest decision of his life, talked about a four-year cycle of pain of which there was no end in sight unless he decided to end his career. After forcing himself to play injured in 2016, he made a vow to himself never to let that happen again. Facing a similar situation now, he lived up to that promise he made himself.
He did what was best for Andrew.
At the end of the day, nothing else matters. Luck should be respected for having the courage to step away and applauded for a great career on the field. He handled everything professionally and honestly, and while he’ll still be around the team he loves, Luck seems ready to enter the next phase of his life.
That is where I would love to end this article. However, if that were the case, this wouldn’t be a story. Huge news, sure — but not a story. It’s the mixed reaction Luck’s retirement received, and my subsequent disappointment in humanity that forces me to write about it.
Andrew Luck gave everything he had for the game of football until he had nothing left to give. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to agree with the idea that people have the right to make decisions that are in their own best interest — not even his own fans.
The timing of Schefter’s report created a surreal situation where Colts fans at Lucas Oil Stadium were made aware of Luck’s retirement during a game where Luck was on the sidelines. Once the game was over, fans let Luck have it as he headed to the locker room.
The booing is downright despicable, especially from people who were Luck’s biggest fans just hours earlier. But it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Remember when Toronto Raptors fans cheered Kevin Durant’s ruptured Achilles injury he suffered in the NBA Finals?
It’s the same problem — a dehumanization of athletes by fans that see them as either mythical creatures or servants. Their feelings don’t matter. No one wants to hear what they have to say. They just need to shut up and play.
People like to talk about how disloyal this generation of athletes is when they move from team to team. But after seeing what happened to Luck when he decided to step away, why would they ever feel required to have an allegiance to a city and a fanbase that won’t show them a shred of decency the moment they stop performing on the field?
I understand that the announcement happened suddenly, and so close to the start of the season, but that doesn’t justify this type of reaction.
In all of this, I would expect members of the media to act as the voices of reason, supporting Luck and his decision. Thankfully, most of these people have done just that. Still, people like Doug Gottlieb have only made matters worse by insinuating that Luck is “soft” for retiring when he did.
Andrew Luck said it himself — he’s been in constant pain for years. And through all of that, he’s still fought each and every day, playing when healthy enough, and being the leader and figurehead for a professional football team.
If you thought, for even a moment, that Andrew Luck was soft, take a look at his injury history.
I think Colts GM Chris Ballard said it best when speaking during the retirement press conference.
Nobody died. Yet, this is what we choose to be outraged over. It remains unclear whether Luck’s retirement will spark a trend of star players choosing to retire early, although we have seen a number of athletes in recent years do so. With the extreme physical toll of being a professional athlete, we should be surprised, if anything, that more athletes haven’t followed in Luck’s footsteps.
Just because this isn’t the way it’s always been doesn’t mean this should be looked down upon. The right kind of change can be positive.
Athletes are much more willing to open up about their personal well-being than ever before, with Kevin Love, Liz Cambage, Michael Phelps and others leading a charge of discussing athlete mental health as it becomes a larger and more socially acceptable issue in society as a whole.
Football was obviously taking a huge toll on Luck’s physical, mental, and emotional state, which is why he ultimately decided to retire.
In doing so, he walks away from the $64 million left on the remaining three years of contract but gains freedom, and hopefully, peace.
It’s the media’s job to dissect every aspect of a story like this one, such as the fantasy football implications of Luck’s retirement, and its effect on the Colts’ Super Bowl odds. People will debate Luck’s legacy, and attempt to place the blame for Luck’s injuries on various groups, from his coaches to Colts management and his offensive line. Some will even peddle conspiracy theories about Luck coming out of retirement to join the XFL, of which his father is the CEO and commissioner.
But when we do this, it only shows our lack of empathy and need to view everything in terms of how it affects us and the way we experience football. None of it gives any care to Andrew.
There does not need to be a discussion over whether Luck should have retired. Quite frankly, we don’t have the right to even debate the issue. It’s his decision, and because of the media, one that he wasn’t even able to make on his own terms.
Still, he went up on the podium, talked us through everything, and even answered questions from the press, without ever once displaying a “why me?” attitude or claiming not to have gotten his fair shake. For that, we should all be grateful.
Me too, Pat. Me too.
Connor Groel is a writer who studies sport management at the University of Texas at Austin. He also serves as editor of the Top Level Sports publication on Medium, and the host of the Connor Groel Sports podcast. You can follow Connor on Medium, Facebook, and Twitter, and view his archives at toplevelsports.net.
