Why does the whole Andrew Luck situation make me mad still

[sb2001]

I really can’t get over AL. Someone help me please. 

[NewColtsFan]

I appreciate that Luck botched his own retirement as badly as possible.   A very private person by nature, he shared so little information that he has left people trying to figure out how he could walk away from a promising career while in his prime. 
 

What fully happened?   We likely will never know…
 

That said, here’s what we do know because Luck literally said so….    He was in constant debilitating pain for four straight years.   Not four seasons….  But years.   It didn’t go away, not even during the off-season when most players regroup and recharge for the upcoming season.   Four straight years of pain.   It sucked the joy out of playing a game that Luck used to love playing.  
 

Have you noticed there are few if any stories by former players complaining about what Luck did?   Because most players get it.  Being in constant rehab is the worst for a professional athlete.   And they’d make the same choice as soon as they’re financially able. 
 

Just because we don’t know the full and complete story, there’s no need to over-think this.   Luck has retired and it’s believed he is no longer in any pain.   I know it sucks for the Colts, but we have to move on.   
 

 

 

[lollygagger8]

2 hours ago, sb2001 said:

I really can’t get over AL. Someone help me please. 

 

[Yoshinator]

Luck retiring in 2019 really took a lot of passion I had for the Colts away since. Honestly, if Ballard wasn't our GM, and we didn't have inside information like "with the next pick" and "hard knocks" available to us the last few years, I probably would of left this team as I would of reached the breaking point of putting six years into rooting for Andrew Luck, and just losing him for nothing. Luckily, Ballard salvaged my fandom for me, and he's done his best to keep us above water (even though I don't agree with a lot of his decisions).

 

Luck's short career was a combination of Grigson's fault and his own fault. Grigson in not giving Luck a proper O-Line to protect him (he made an effort, but is a poor talent evaluator), and Luck in the fact that he played a reckless style, and he also did stuff like snowboarding outside of football where he got hurt. No one believed me when he was still playing, and I got a lot of heat for saying it, but I always questioned his passion for the game, and I always said he was going to retire young.

 

He was the complete opposite of Peyton. He's more book smart than football smart, and he didn't live football like Peyton did. I liked him as a player for what he did for us, but at no point did I ever put him on the same level as Peyton. I never liked his personality, he wouldn't be someone I would hang out with in real life, and even though I thought he was a solid talent, he was very overrated and was probably the 3rd best QB in that class behind Wilson and Cousins (even Tannehill is close, and Foles and Osweiller helped win SBs). He fell behind constantly in games and was a notoriously slow starter. I did not enjoy that. He never beat the Pats or Steelers. I don't believe he would of won us a SB in the conference the way it is now. 

 

Having said that, he would probably be the best option we could currently have, and was a huge loss. It's time to move on though, and hopefully next year, we get a true rookie replacement finally to groom behind Matt Ryan for a year and be our starting QB for 15 years.

 

I will never forgive Luck for the timing of his retirement. To me, that dropped him a bunch on my respect list as a person for screwing over his teammates, Irsay, Ballard, Reich, and the fanbase right before the season started. I hope he is not put in the ring of honor, or even mentioned in Indy again. He's done as much harm to Ballard as he did good to Grigson. He is out of my life now. I have not worn my Luck jersey for 2 years now in public, nor do I bring up his name in conversation to other sports fans. He is history that I want to forget forever because it angers me to think about him as I dislike him now in every way possible.

[2006Coltsbestever]

1 hour ago, NewColtsFan said:

I appreciate that Luck botched his own retirement as badly as possible.   A very private person by nature, he shared so little information that he has left people trying to figure out how he could walk away from a promising career while in his prime. 
 

What fully happened?   We likely will never know…
 

That said, here’s what we do know because Luck literally said so….    He was in constant debilitating pain for four straight years.   Not four seasons….  But years.   It didn’t go away, not even during the off-season when most players regroup and recharge for the upcoming season.   Four straight years of pain.   It sucked the joy out of playing a game that Luck used to love playing.  
 

Have you noticed there are few if any stories by former players complaining about what Luck did?   Because most players get it.  Being in constant rehab is the worst for a professional athlete.   And they’d make the same choice as soon as they’re financially able. 
 

Just because we don’t know the full and complete story, there’s no need to over-think this.   Luck has retired and it’s believed he is no longer in any pain.   I know it sucks for the Colts, but we have to move on.   
 

 

 

I am not mad/upset that he retired but it was just the timing of it. I wish he would've did it after the KC loss in the playoffs, before the draft. Having said that, he gave us a ton of great memories in his short time here. The comeback win vs KC in the playoffs will always be a top 5 classic playoff game of all-time for example. By him retiring he did set us back roughly 5 years but I understand why he did it. I think we now finally have a roster that can compete with a SB, first time since 2018. Matt Ryan will be 37 though so we need to go for hard in 2022 and 2023 while Taylor is at his best too. 

 

Luck no doubt belongs in the ROH, he was that Very Good to Great. He was better than Harbaugh and I loved Harbaugh who is in ROH. 

[Smonroe]

“Get over it!”

      - Barry Sanders

[2006Coltsbestever]

4 minutes ago, Smonroe said:

“Get over it!”

      - Barry Sanders

Yeah and Calvin Johnson. Imagine being a Lions fan + 0-16 in 2008  

[Myles]

I still haven't gotten over the timing of his retirement.  I don't dwell on it but I'm not fond of Luck because of it.  

 

That's water under the bridge at this point though.  

[Fluke_33]

It's normal to look back on what could have been but sharks only swim forward.  Time to move on.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

I understand why he did it but that doesn’t mean I am not still mad at what he did to this team.   I really dislike the bad position he put this team in.

[coltsfanej]

Imbalance of life can cause fixating on secondary and tertiary issues because of the lack of focus on what should be the primary priority. 

[coltsfan_canada]

I have no problem with him retiring, he knows what's best for him. The problem is when he did it. The week 3 of preseason game. We still don't know behind the curtain that if he requested for early retirement, and if Ballard or Irsay tried to tell him to stay. No GM can replace QB after week 3 of preseason game. I think CB has done overall amazing job with QB after Luck retirement. 

[JediXMan]

 

 

[2006Coltsbestever]

30 minutes ago, JediXMan said:

 

 

[shasta519]

Luck was my favorite Colts player of all time. But after 2017, I had already resigned myself to the idea that he might not be the Colts QB much longer. Something started to feel off.

 

I think one reason why many fans have yet to get over it is because the Colts haven't had a good, young QB prospect to root for and to watch develop into a franchise QB. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dw49]

I still wonder if his throwing shoulder ever healed properly. I don't think he had the same arm talent after that injury. 

[BProland85]

What makes me the most mad is *ic Titans fans in Tennessee who hate on the Colts blame Ballard for not figuring out QB longterm since the abrupt Luck retirement. As if it's so easy to find the next franchise QB when you're picking middle of the 1st round and later. Titans fans think they actually have the better GM in Jon Robinson, which I find laughable when he can't seem to get his 1st round picks right the past few years, and has made some questionable moves with the Julio trade, and trading away AJ Brown. 

[IrsaysArmy]

19 minutes ago, dw49 said:

I still wonder if his throwing shoulder ever healed properly. I don't think he had the same arm talent after that injury. 

Wasn’t even close to the same after the injury. 

[IrsaysArmy]

Luck retiring definitely hurt and it definitely set our team back some years. And as somebody stated above, it’s easy to look back and think what could’ve been. Especially not only if he didn’t retire but if he didn’t sustain injuries from the jump.

 

It’s tough to grade Luck because he had like 3 healthy seasons (first 3). I think he was really good but I’m still not sure if we’d have a ring by now if he stuck around. 

[DougDew]

Once you have financial security, the only reason these guys play football is for the competitiveness or the glory.  These are two personality  traits that most people do not possess in abundance.  Competitiveness is usually drawn out in most people because of their pursuit of financial security, so its a trait that most can relate to and have, but its a trait that gets drawn out by circumstances.  Being nice and sharing what abundant things you have is more natural, JMO.   Seeking glory is just plain weird, LOL.

 

To retire after you make $125M sounds like common sense to me.  

[RollerColt]

I still get sad thinking about it, but I've let go of any anger. I understand and respect his decision. I think we as fans have been in mourning of the loss of what our team could have been with him healthy these past few years. 

 

That's the thing though. He probably wouldn't have been healthy. Andrew Luck at 80% is still better than most, and would have been fine for us fans. But for Luck personally? Why go though the pain and suffering, knowing there's a very real chance the pain would never go away? 

[John Waylon]

Eh. I get it. He wanted out. Thanks dude, good luck. That mustache makes you look like a young, sickly Grandpa Joe. 
 

The one I’ve never been able to let go of was the last image I have of Peyton in a Colts uniform was with his arms outstretched asking that nitwit jim caldwell why he had called a timeout to allow the Jets a chance to set up and run another play to get into FG range. 
 

Especially these days now that it’s clear that the eventual break did leave quite the scar.

[Flash7]

It seems like the one thing some on this forum will not forgive Luck about is the timing of his retirement. No doubt, the entire retirement was botched and the timing could not have been worse. But ask yourself, why would Luck retire just before the season? 

 

In 2018, Luck hard returned from his serious shoulder injury and went on to have one of his best seasons. He won an NFL honor for returning player of the year. Everything was looking up. Then during the offseason, there were reports of a mysterious lower leg injury. Once again, Luck spent time in rehab, working on getting this injury under control. He wanted to keep playing, but at the same time, he had promised himself that he would not put himself through another year of constant pain. 

 

So the plan in his mind was probably this: If he could get the pain to reside before the start of the season, then he would continue to play. However, if he could not get the pain managed, then he would have to protect himself and retire. If you remember, the Colts had a very difficult time diagnosing exactly what the issue was. All we knew was that it was a mysterious lower leg injury. It did not get better and Andrew Luck fought till the end to try to get it to heal. When the report came out that Andrew Luck would start the 2019 season on IR, I think that was the indication that it was time for him to hang it up.

 

So long story short, Andrew Luck wanted to play and fought to the last minute to continue playing. His leg did not heal in time and for that reason, the timing of his retirement was unfortunate. If his leg had healed up, I think he would have kept playing. 

[Four2itus]

I was over it in one hour. I love Andrew, and what he brought to the Colts. When your heart is not in it, then I for one am glad he chose to walk away. For those who are still buthurt, disturbed, angry, sad, or whatever, it might do good to remember what was said by Frank/Chris? at the time of the event. Multiple times they admitted that they told Andrew to take as much time as he needed to make his decision. Now why in the hell would they be saying that to him unless AL was revealing serious doubts about his career? 

 

I'll tell you why, because he was giving them indication that he didn't want to continue. Is Andrew blameless for his timing? Of course not, but I believe....and I have no way to prove this, that Frank was the main guy who felt that AL would get over his doubts, and play out the season. I think Andrew wanted to end it earlier in the offseason, and it was Frank who urged him to "think about it". 

 

I am actually surprised folks still have issues about this. Of course, that is a choice. Remember, we can't choose what happens to us in life for the most part. We can, however, choose how we feel about it. 

[cdgacoltsfan]

It's just a game and AL is just a player that was paid millions to play the game and decided to quit at an in appropriate time. So....who cares at this point. Move on with your lives.

[GoColts8818]

At this point I’ve made my peace with it and moved on.  
 

I think it’s possible to both understand why he did what he did and still not like it and that’s ok.  I also think it’s okay to look back and it and go I don’t like what he did or what it did to the team but you know what it’s over it’s just one of those things that happened.  At some point you have to let go and move forward or you are only punishing yourself.

[2006Coltsbestever]

3 minutes ago, Four2itus said:

I was over it in one hour. I love Andrew, and what he brought to the Colts. When your heart is not in it, then I for one am glad he chose to walk away. For those who are still buthurt, disturbed, angry, sad, or whatever, it might do good to remember what was said by Frank/Chris? at the time of the event. Multiple times they admitted that they  told Andrew to take as much time as he needed to make his decision. Now why in the hell would they be saying that to him unless AL was revealing serious doubts about his career? 

 

I'll tell you why, because he was giving them indication that he didn't want to continue. Is Andrew blameless for his timing? Of course not, but I believe....and I have no way to prove this, that Frank was the main guy who felt that AL would get over his doubts, and play out the season. I think Andrew wanted to end it earlier in the offseason, and it was Frank who urged him to "think about it". 

 

I am actually surprised folks still have issues about this. Of course, that is a choice. Remember, we can't choose what happens to us in life for the most part. We can, however, choose how we feel about it. 

I was over it at 59 minutes and 59 seconds, so I win by 1 second - just messin with you. I am all about 2022 now, I like me some Matt Ryan and our roster looks great on paper.

[bWild]

“The one that got away”

[NewColtsFan]

6 hours ago, Jared Cisneros said:

Luck retiring in 2019 really took a lot of passion I had for the Colts away since. Honestly, if Ballard wasn't our GM, and we didn't have inside information like "with the next pick" and "hard knocks" available to us the last few years, I probably would of left this team as I would of reached the breaking point of putting six years into rooting for Andrew Luck, and just losing him for nothing. Luckily, Ballard salvaged my fandom for me, and he's done his best to keep us above water (even though I don't agree with a lot of his decisions).

 

Luck's short career was a combination of Grigson's fault and his own fault. Grigson in not giving Luck a proper O-Line to protect him (he made an effort, but is a poor talent evaluator), and Luck in the fact that he played a reckless style, and he also did stuff like snowboarding outside of football where he got hurt. No one believed me when he was still playing, and I got a lot of heat for saying it, but I always questioned his passion for the game, and I always said he was going to retire young.

 

He was the complete opposite of Peyton. He's more book smart than football smart, and he didn't live football like Peyton did. I liked him as a player for what he did for us, but at no point did I ever put him on the same level as Peyton. I never liked his personality, he wouldn't be someone I would hang out with in real life, and even though I thought he was a solid talent, he was very overrated and was probably the 3rd best QB in that class behind Wilson and Cousins (even Tannehill is close, and Foles and Osweiller helped win SBs). He fell behind constantly in games and was a notoriously slow starter. I did not enjoy that. He never beat the Pats or Steelers. I don't believe he would of won us a SB in the conference the way it is now. 

 

Having said that, he would probably be the best option we could currently have, and was a huge loss. It's time to move on though, and hopefully next year, we get a true rookie replacement finally to groom behind Matt Ryan for a year and be our starting QB for 15 years.

 

I will never forgive Luck for the timing of his retirement. To me, that dropped him a bunch on my respect list as a person for screwing over his teammates, Irsay, Ballard, Reich, and the fanbase right before the season started. I hope he is not put in the ring of honor, or even mentioned in Indy again. He's done as much harm to Ballard as he did good to Grigson. He is out of my life now. I have not worn my Luck jersey for 2 years now in public, nor do I bring up his name in conversation to other sports fans. He is history that I want to forget forever because it angers me to think about him as I dislike him now in every way possible.

I think you should at least consider that the timing may have been influenced by Irsay and Ballard.   
 

It’s been speculated that Luck may have been ready to retire much earlier in the off-season than he did.   And that Irsay and Ballard may have encouraged to hold off retiring and hoping things would get better and Luck might change his mind and not retire.   It’s not unreasonable to think they told Luck that Brissett would replace him no matter when he announced, so maybe more time could lead to more healing.  
 

Remember, Luck is the son of a quarterback.    He knows the importance of the position to the team.   He’s the least likely guy to want to hurt his own team.   I don’t see him making an impulsive decision that hangs his franchise out to dry.   It’s the exact opposite of Luck’s nature.    Just good for thought. 

[Myles]

2 hours ago, BProland85 said:

What makes me the most mad is *ic Titans fans in Tennessee who hate on the Colts blame Ballard for not figuring out QB longterm since the abrupt Luck retirement. As if it's so easy to find the next franchise QB when you're picking middle of the 1st round and later. Titans fans think they actually have the better GM in Jon Robinson, which I find laughable when he can't seem to get his 1st round picks right the past few years, and has made some questionable moves with the Julio trade, and trading away AJ Brown. 

Titan fans don't bother me at all.   Why are there so many Colts fans who let Titan fans get under their skin?   You are a good example by finding it "laughable" that they think their GM GM is good.    Their GM has done pretty good, in my opinion.  

[Dingus McGirt]

7 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

I appreciate that Luck botched his own retirement as badly as possible.   A very private person by nature, he shared so little information that he has left people trying to figure out how he could walk away from a promising career while in his prime. 
 

What fully happened?   We likely will never know…
 

That said, here’s what we do know because Luck literally said so….    He was in constant debilitating pain for four straight years.   Not four seasons….  But years.   It didn’t go away, not even during the off-season when most players regroup and recharge for the upcoming season.   Four straight years of pain.   It sucked the joy out of playing a game that Luck used to love playing.  
 

Have you noticed there are few if any stories by former players complaining about what Luck did?   Because most players get it.  Being in constant rehab is the worst for a professional athlete.   And they’d make the same choice as soon as they’re financially able. 
 

Just because we don’t know the full and complete story, there’s no need to over-think this.   Luck has retired and it’s believed he is no longer in any pain.   I know it sucks for the Colts, but we have to move on.   
 

 

 

Such terrible pain he was snowboarding.

[2006Coltsbestever]

6 hours ago, Jared Cisneros said:

Luck retiring in 2019 really took a lot of passion I had for the Colts away since. Honestly, if Ballard wasn't our GM, and we didn't have inside information like "with the next pick" and "hard knocks" available to us the last few years, I probably would of left this team as I would of reached the breaking point of putting six years into rooting for Andrew Luck, and just losing him for nothing. Luckily, Ballard salvaged my fandom for me, and he's done his best to keep us above water (even though I don't agree with a lot of his decisions).

 

Luck's short career was a combination of Grigson's fault and his own fault. Grigson in not giving Luck a proper O-Line to protect him (he made an effort, but is a poor talent evaluator), and Luck in the fact that he played a reckless style, and he also did stuff like snowboarding outside of football where he got hurt. No one believed me when he was still playing, and I got a lot of heat for saying it, but I always questioned his passion for the game, and I always said he was going to retire young.

 

He was the complete opposite of Peyton. He's more book smart than football smart, and he didn't live football like Peyton did. I liked him as a player for what he did for us, but at no point did I ever put him on the same level as Peyton. I never liked his personality, he wouldn't be someone I would hang out with in real life, and even though I thought he was a solid talent, he was very overrated and was probably the 3rd best QB in that class behind Wilson and Cousins (even Tannehill is close, and Foles and Osweiller helped win SBs). He fell behind constantly in games and was a notoriously slow starter. I did not enjoy that. He never beat the Pats or Steelers. I don't believe he would of won us a SB in the conference the way it is now. 

 

Having said that, he would probably be the best option we could currently have, and was a huge loss. It's time to move on though, and hopefully next year, we get a true rookie replacement finally to groom behind Matt Ryan for a year and be our starting QB for 15 years.

 

I will never forgive Luck for the timing of his retirement. To me, that dropped him a bunch on my respect list as a person for screwing over his teammates, Irsay, Ballard, Reich, and the fanbase right before the season started. I hope he is not put in the ring of honor, or even mentioned in Indy again. He's done as much harm to Ballard as he did good to Grigson. He is out of my life now. I have not worn my Luck jersey for 2 years now in public, nor do I bring up his name in conversation to other sports fans. He is history that I want to forget forever because it angers me to think about him as I dislike him now in every way possible.

A lot of good points here. I loved Andrew Luck as a QB but his timing of his retirement is really the only thing we should be upset about. I was furious when I first heard about it and thought it was even a joke.  To put him in the same breath as Tannehill, Cousins, Foles, and stinky Osweiler though is a tad silly, come on man. I will give you Russell Wilson being better but those others, hmmm NO. I get it, Foles won a SB but so did Trent Dilfer  . Is Trent Dilfer better than Dan Marino, not by a mile is my point. 

[RollerColt]

46 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

I think you should at least consider that the timing may have been influenced by Irsay and Ballard.   
 

It’s been speculated that Luck may have been ready to retire much earlier in the off-season than he did.   And that Irsay and Ballard may have encouraged to hold off retiring and hoping things would get better and Luck might change his mind and not retire.   It’s not unreasonable to think they told Luck that Brissett would replace him no matter when he announced, so maybe more time could lead to more healing.  
 

Remember, Luck is the son of a quarterback.    He knows the importance of the position to the team.   He’s the least likely guy to want to hurt his own team.   I don’t see him making an impulsive decision that hangs his franchise out to dry.   It’s the exact opposite of Luck’s nature.    Just good for thought. 

Not to mention that ESPN broke the news before he was ready to announce it on his own terms. Once word spread like fire, he had no choice but to address it. 

 

I agree it wasn't impulsive. I think he realized his leg wasn't healing properly, which meant he was going to miss yet another season. The more I think about it, I actually think it was better that he announced before the season started. I think it would've been much worse to go through the entire season with hope that he'd return, only to find out he retired once it ended. 

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, Dingus McGirt said:

 

[BProland85]

45 minutes ago, Myles said:

Titan fans don't bother me at all.   Why are there so many Colts fans who let Titan fans get under their skin?   You are a good example by finding it "laughable" that they think their GM GM is good.    Their GM has done pretty good, in my opinion.  

The issue is they think their GM is much better than Ballard, which I find ridiculous, as I live in Nashville and see first hand all the dumb decisions Robinson makes. I agree Ballard makes occasional dumb decisions too like trading what he did for Wentz for example, but for the most part he does things very calculated. Go visit the Titans message board. You'll see just how Titans fans think of the Colts. I just hope Reich doesn't screw things up and instead prepares this team like it should be because we should not lose to them this season if he has a quality gameplan.  

[NewColtsFan]

11 minutes ago, BProland85 said:

The issue is they think their GM is much better than Ballard, which I find ridiculous, as I live in Nashville and see first hand all the dumb decisions Robinson makes. I agree Ballard makes occasional dumb decisions too like trading what he did for Wentz for example, but for the most part he does things very calculated. Go visit the Titans message board. You'll see just how Titans fans think of the Colts. I just hope Reich doesn't screw things up and instead prepares this team like it should be because we should not lose to them this season if he has a quality gameplan.  

We should not lose to them?    What the heck?    
 

Tennessee is not a bad team.   There’s no shame in losing to Tennessee.   They are a playoff caliber team. 

[csmopar]

8 hours ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

I am not mad/upset that he retired but it was just the timing of it. I wish he would've did it after the KC loss in the playoffs, before the draft. Having said that, he gave us a ton of great memories in his short time here. The comeback win vs KC in the playoffs will always be a top 5 classic playoff game of all-time for example. By him retiring he did set us back roughly 5 years but I understand why he did it. I think we now finally have a roster that can compete with a SB, first time since 2018. Matt Ryan will be 37 though so we need to go for hard in 2022 and 2023 while Taylor is at his best too. 

 

Luck no doubt belongs in the ROH, he was that Very Good to Great. He was better than Harbaugh and I loved Harbaugh who is in ROH. 

No no no. Luck deserves to be no where near the RoH. Not even in the same planet. Putting that quitter into the ROH would be a slap in the face of everyone in it.  Nope, no thanks. I’d sooner out Trent Richardson in the ROH than Luck

[IrsaysArmy]

Wow, I’m actually kinda surprised at how many people here are bothered by Luck retiring. These are the kinda comments I would expect in the weeks after the fact. It’s been 4 years y’all

[Moosejawcolt]

11 hours ago, sb2001 said:

I really can’t get over AL. Someone help me please. 

God i would hate to see you after breaking up with a girlfriend? How about this? Get over it...he's is gone and never coming back!! There you go. That should give you closure and it didn't even cost you anything.

[superrep1967]

10 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

I appreciate that Luck botched his own retirement as badly as possible.   A very private person by nature, he shared so little information that he has left people trying to figure out how he could walk away from a promising career while in his prime. 
 

What fully happened?   We likely will never know…
 

That said, here’s what we do know because Luck literally said so….    He was in constant debilitating pain for four straight years.   Not four seasons….  But years.   It didn’t go away, not even during the off-season when most players regroup and recharge for the upcoming season.   Four straight years of pain.   It sucked the joy out of playing a game that Luck used to love playing.  
 

Have you noticed there are few if any stories by former players complaining about what Luck did?   Because most players get it.  Being in constant rehab is the worst for a professional athlete.   And they’d make the same choice as soon as they’re financially able. 
 

Just because we don’t know the full and complete story, there’s no need to over-think this.   Luck has retired and it’s believed he is no longer in any pain.   I know it sucks for the Colts, but we have to move on.   
 

 

 

It’s been awhile now let it go things happen. I was upset at the moment then I moved on. But he did set this franchise back several years as we all know.