-
Caban
The entire sports world received a shock on Saturday when Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck announced his retirement.
However, count this sportswriter as reacting with more of a mild surprise.
It’s notthat I was expecting Luck to bow out less than two weeks before his team kicked off their season at the Los Angeles Chargers.
However, anyone who has followed Luck’s career, particularly the last four years shouldn’t be surprised.
A series of injuries including a lacerated kidney, a frayed labrum and torn rib cartilage have plagued the quarterback since September 2015.
A look at the numbers shows the thinking behind Luck’s decision.
While he was eligible to play 84 games since he was drafted first overall in 2012, he missed 26 of those games. That amounts to 22 percent overall.
However, if you go from 2015 to 2018, he was eligible for 64 games. Here those 26 games account for 40 percent of the total.
I think most of us would agree that not being able to work or do something we loved that often would be excruciating.
We all know that football is not simply a contact sport, but arguably among the most contact of all contact sports.
It is not a game for the faint of heart.
It requires countless hours of strength training and conditioning simply to prepare for its rigors.
That time builds upon itself the longer players continue in the sport.
Most players hang up their cleats after high school. Some continue playing into college and even fewer make it to the professional ranks.
During his press conference on August 24, Luck said he was mentally worn down.
I take Andrew Luck at his word because he knows himself better than any of us.
If he was the quarterback for my team, I would be disappointed. However, I don’t begrudge someone for living how they want to live.
Frankly, it annoys me when fellow fans or sportswriters call someone weak for being ready to walk away.
No one wants to see any player, including Andrew Luck, stop playing the game they love at the young age of 29.
However, in this part of the world, we tend to let people live their lives as they see fit unless they are openly breaking the law.
Out here in the country we like to give people their space. I think that mindset is appropriate here.
We can still enjoy what Luck brought to the game and realize the games will keep going on.
Because at the end of the day, football as a sport, if not an outright state of mind is bigger than any single player or team.
There is a timeless quality to the thought of 11 players on each side battling it out in the trenches.
Most of us thought Andrew Luck would be playing on Sundays for a few years longer. However, that is no longer meant to be.
It means someone will take his place and the game will go on.