Forward thinking
Colts’ Luck hopes healthy off-season leads to better results
INDIANAPOLIS — Andrew Luck spent three offseasons fighting his way back from injuries. Now he can reap the reward.
After returning to the field, making it back to the playoffs, regaining his Pro Bowl form and collecting The Associated Press NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award, a healthy Luck now intends to take a rare and well-deserved break from football.
“I’ll be honest, I probably won’t throw for a while,” he said before cleaning out his locker. “There will be tweaks, there will be changes to what I do (this off-season) but all of it is geared to one, make me as happy as possible and two, set me up to improve as a quarterback and improve as a person.”
How Luck will spend his downtime is unclear.
Peyton Manning broke the monotony with hunting trips. Brett Favre worked on his ranch. Tom Brady won a Super Bowl after changing last year’s off-season routine to spend more time with his family and less on football. They all learned throwing more balls doesn’t necessarily make a better quarterback.
Matt Hasselbeck, a threetime Pro Bowler who backed up Favre and Luck during his 17-year career, became a believer. So after hearing a story about Manning meeting a former U.S. president one off-season, Hasselbeck accepted an offer from assistant coach Clyde Christensen to spend time with a Navy admiral.
“He talked to us in our quarterback meeting one day about protecting the football because we’d had some issues and he used this analogy of what they tell Top Gun pilots,” Hasselbeck said. “It was basically that you have this great plane you get to fly and it does not belong to you. It belongs to the government, it belongs to the people. Clyde said we should take the admiral up on spending some time with him. So I did that one offseason.
“That’s an example of something that’s not necessarily X’s and O’s but it’s a form of leadership training or just working on you and if you’re working on you, you’re improving everything about you.”
It was a message Hasselbeck relayed to Luck after joining the Colts in 2013. But it was a hard sell to a young workout warrior with the pressure and expectations of a No. 1 draft pick.
While Luck enjoyed vacationing in Europe, where he spent part of his childhood reading books, following soccer and riding bikes, the desire to improve drove him to work out.
In time, Hasselbeck’s message sank in.
Luck’s good year came with 16 starts for the first time since 2014, producing career highs in completions, attempts and completion percentage. He finished second to Patrick Mahomes in touchdown passes.
FALCONS CUT KICKER
The Atlanta Falcons are releasing kicker Matt Bryant, ending the 10-year run of the team’s all-time leading scorer.
The decision to not renew the team’s option on the 43-year-old Bryant comes despite another strong season in 2018, when he made 20 of 21 field goals and 33 of 35 extra points. His only missed field goal was from 53 yards at Green Bay.
Bryant missed three games with a hamstring injury.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank said in a team statement Bryant “will be remembered as one of the greatest Falcons of all time.”
Bryant said on his Twitter account he plans to extend his career.
The Falcons also released cornerback Robert Alford ,a second-round pick in 2013 who had 10 career interceptions but none this season.
The move, announced by the team on Tuesday night, could clear the way for Isaiah Oliver, a 2018 second-round pick, to start. As a rookie, Oliver cut into Alford’s playing time.
Alford signed a four-year, $38 million contract extension after the 2016 season. His release will clear $7.9 million in cap space for the 2019 season.