Tales of unfulfilled promise
Luck, Griffin were top picks in 2012 draft but their careers have been derailed by injuries
When first Andrew Luck and then Robert Griffin III, both of them so young and unscathed and full of promise, walked across the stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York on draft night in April 2012, it was supposed to be an evening of lasting consequence for the NFL.
Luck, chosen first by the Indianapolis Colts, and Griffin, the consolation prize that so elated the Washington Redskins with the No. 2 pick, were going to make that NFL draft historically great for quarterbacks, comparable to the 1983 draft that yielded John Elway, Jim Kelly and Dan Marino as part of a six-quarterback first round. Luck and Griffin would become the league’s next megastar quarterbacks and they would supplant Peyton Manning and Tom Brady as the faces of the sport.
Super Bowls surely would follow. League MVPs would be piled up. Future enshrinements in the Pro Football Hall of Fame did not seem out of the question.
Now, a little more than seven years later, it appears all but over. And so much of the promise of that memorable draft night has been left unfulfilled. Luck announced his retirement Saturday night, saying he was too tired of dealing with injuries to continue playing the game. Griffin is a backup in Baltimore. There have been no Super Bowls and no MVP awards. There is no talk of all-time greatness. There is just acceptance that, you know, things happen.
“I certainly feel like I got my fair chance,” Luck said during his emotional retirement announcement late Saturday in Indianapolis. “And I’m grateful for every snap that I got to take. I don’t hold any resentment, I guess, in that way. I do feel like I got a fair chance and I tried to make the most of my chance. And right now my journey just doesn’t include football going forward.”
It’s not that Luck and Griffin were busts, not in the manner of Ryan Leaf, Heath Shuler, Tim Couch, David Carr, Akili Smith or JaMarcus Russell. Far from it, particularly in Luck’s case. Griffin and Luck both showed they could play in the NFL and play very well. They could even dominate at times.
Griffin was the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year for the Redskins in 2012. Luck was a four-time Pro Bowl selection in the six seasons he played over seven years for the Colts. Luck threw for 171 touchdowns and close to 24,000 yards, and at age 29 he was well on his way to having a hall of fame-worthy career.
But now, instead of joining Brady and Manning on the list of the greatest quarterbacks ever, he becomes a former NFL player. His career will be remembered for his lengthy list of injuries and for what wasn’t accomplished as much as for what was. Colts owner Jim Irsay used to say his franchise would win multiple Super Bowls with Luck at quarterback. Luck got the Colts to an AFC championship game but never to a Super Bowl.
He was the successor to Manning in Indianapolis who appeared so worthy, but in large part because of circumstances beyond his control, he could not duplicate Manning’s success or longevity.
“From the moment I arrived in Indianapolis,” Luck said, “I felt like I could be myself. I felt like I did not have to fill his shoes. I could be me. And for that I very, very, very much appreciate it.”
He exits after a very strong 2018 season, which succeeded a missed 2017 season following shoulder surgery, and the Colts returned to the playoffs.
“There are times last year I had to pinch myself and say, ‘Is this for real? Am I allowed to have this much fun on a football field?’ ” Luck said.
That raised expectations for this season. But Luck, forced to deal with a leg injury, decided he’d had enough. And so Griffin, improbably, has outlasted his 2012 draft-mate in the NFL. Griffin has been sidelined by a hairline fracture in his right thumb, but remains in the Ravens’ plans as a backup to second-year starter Lamar Jackson.
Griffin’s Redskins career was undone by injuries and a clash with former coach Mike Shanahan. He failed to make good on a starting opportunity in Cleveland and he was out of the league in 2017. But he has found a way to regain employment as an NFL survivor.
“The thing I’ve learned is I just know who I am,” Griffin said last summer while trying to make the Ravens’ roster. “Being out of football for a year teaches you a lot about yourself. If I had just folded it and said, ‘You know what? I’m done. Made enough money. Played enough plays. Lived out my dream,’ that would tell me where my heart is. I didn’t do that.
“I watched the tape. I studied. I worked hard. I stayed in it. I feel like the adversity that I’ve been through, from the highs to the lows, in the MVP talks to not playing an entire year . . . I’ve learned who I am. And I understand the type of player that I can be, the type of player I will be. Tom Brady is playing until he’s 41 (now 42). I’m 28 (now 29). I’ve got a lot of years left.”
Draft night 2012 now seems like a long, long time ago. It becomes a cautionary tale. Griffin may or may not regain NFL relevance. Luck may or may not return to the sport someday. But as Luck left, he continued to express his affection for a sport that was so fickle toward him.
“In a philosophical sense,” Luck said Saturday, “I want to thank football for so many wonderful moments in my life. It’s the greatest team sport in the world.”
“I’m grateful for every snap that I got to take. I don’t hold any resentment.”
ANDREW LUCK FORMER COLTS QUARTERBACK