Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
A change in sports for the better
Luck commended, not reviled for his decision to call it a career at 29
That loud and ludicrous booing Andrew Luck heard while leaving the field in Indianapolis as a retired man?
Multiply the vile exponentially. Keep that volume for days, weeks, even a full season. And then subtract the larger wave of compassion and support for Luck that immediately swamped any anger.
That was Ricky Williams’ retirement from the Miami Dolphins a football generation ago.
Maybe we’ve progressed this much as a sports world. Maybe we understand the game that brings such fun in the watching doesn’t always create for those playing.
Or maybe the fact Luck talked, personally and eloquently, after his surprise announcement Saturday night allowed everyone to understand his love of the game didn’t supersede the pain in his life.
The real surprise of Luck’s retirement is it doesn’t happen more often. Who would want to constantly injure their body and fear what’s coming down the timeline of life due to football?
The litany of Luck’s injuries in six seasons would be staggering if it weren’t so common in the NFL: a partially torn abdomen; a lacerated kidney that left him urinating blood; a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder, a collapsed lung; torn cartilage in two ribs, one reported concussion; and now an odd calf or ankle issue that kept him out of this preseason.
“I’m in pain, I’m still in pain, I’ve been in this cycle for four years,’’ Luck said. “Shoulder, ankle, and this and this and this. I
don’t feel like I can live the life I want moving forward [with football.]”
Here’s the dirty truth NFL players don’t tell: Their love of the game often diminishes the longer they play. Not everyone is Dan Marino, who would play today if his body allowed, or
Tom Brady, who wants to play until he’s 45.
I once asked a Dolphin, now retired, how many players actually enjoy playing football. “Maybe half,’’ he said.
And the other half?
“They play because they either need the money or don’t know anything else,’’ he said. “Like most people in careers, right?”
Luck didn’t need the money. He obviously wants to try something else. The fallout of this will fall for a while. There’s the football fallout of Indianapolis dropping from Super Bowl contender to average team.
There’s the Dolphin fallout of another team needing a franchise quarterback. There’s also,
if you enjoy a chuckle, how Ryan Tannehill is the best, top-10 quarterback pick of that 2012 draft now that Luck has retired and Robert Griffin III so injurydiminished.
The debate also is on about the most surprising NFL retirement. Jim Brown retired from Cleveland at 29 after he led the league in rushing. Barry Sanders
quit in Detroit at 31 on the eve of training camp to shock and anger from all sides.
“Wait’ll your kids grow up,’’ Sanders’ father, William, said. “One day they’ll do something that makes you wonder if they’re the same kids you raised.”
That was the same reaction to Williams quitting on the Dolphins, at 27, on the eve of the 2004 training camp. He led the league the previous two years with 383 and 392 rushing carries. For perspective, Dallas’ Ezekiel Elliot led all rushers with 305 carries last year.
“My body had enough,’’ he once said. “My mind had enough. I just had enough.”
So he retired without comment to a tent in Australia and smoked weed. That added to the outcry at the time. A year later, he returned for a reason anyone can understand: Money.
Luck left a half-billion dollars on the table, Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay said. But if you needed to understand his decision, he explained in a strong voice and anguished face.
We can debate if there was a more surprising retirement in sports. But Luck had the most eloquent sudden retirement. He thanked everyone. He took all questions, even right to the booing.
“Yeah, it hurt,’’ he said. “I’ll be honest, it hurt.”
That mood quickly changed, though. Luck wasn’t booed as the decision sunk in. He was, in many ways commended. Maybe the sports world is improving.