Why a retirement rocked the NFL
NFL players have long been called gladiators – and for good reason. Much like those poor souls entering the Colosseum, they are sacrificing their short and long-term health for the entertainment of the masses. In return, they will be showered with adulation and unimaginable riches – if they survive.
Of course, players enter the NFL voluntarily, but that in essence has been the trade-off upon which the biggest sporting organisation on the planet operates. This is why Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck’s unexpected retirement over the weekend felt like an earthquake just a couple of weeks before the season starts.
Selected as the first choice of the 2012 NFL draft, Luck went on to set a rookie record of 4374 passing yards. He earned selection to the Pro Bowl four times and took the Colts to the playoffs four times in five complete seasons. After missing the whole of the 2017 season, he threw 39 touchdowns and a career-high 4593 yards to earn Comeback Player of the Year last season. In short, he was very, very good.
There are dozens of previous examples of players retiring on their own terms while in their prime. In 2015, Chris Borland walked away from the NFL after just one standout season over fears regarding head injuries. Tight end Rob Gronkowski quit in March just weeks after winning another Super Bowl with the New England Patriots.
At 29, Gronkowski was the same age as Luck when he retired. The difference is that Luck is not just a quarterback but a franchise quarterback, a club of about eight or 10 players around whom an entire organisation is built and a position which a lot of American boys dream of occupying.
According to research by ESPN, the only other NFL quarterback to walk away from the sport in their 20s after a Pro Bowl season was Johnny Lujack in 1952 because he wanted to set up his own car dealership. Luck is the equivalent of a monarch abdicating his throne.
By retiring, Luck has forfeited the remaining US$58.1 million (NZ$91 million) of his contract. Colts owner Jim Irsay estimates that he could have earned a further US$450 million. The success of Tom Brady, fresh from winning his sixth Super Bowl, and Drew Brees are proof that it is possible to extend a career past your 40th birthday. Yet Luck had had enough.
‘‘I’m in pain, I’m still in pain,’’ he said on Sunday.
‘‘For the last four years or so, I’ve been in this cycle of injury, pain, rehab, injury, pain, rehab, and it’s been unceasing, unrelenting, both in-season and off-season, and I felt stuck in it. The only way I see it is to no longer play football.’’
– The Telegraph, London