Quarterback Andrew Luck’s decision to retire did not shock me because I remember that he decided to forgo the NFL in his senior year at Stanford for one reason: To earn an architectural degree

Andrew Luck announces retirement

CBS Sports

… injuries, fatherhood, loss of love for the game

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

“Walden” by Henry David Thoreau

Beginning a story about a football player with a quote from Henry David Thoreau may seem incongruous to some, but the reality is that quarterback Andrew Luck has always walked to the beat of a different drummer — just like Thoreau pointed out in the 19th Century.

So, when he “shocked” the football world last night and announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 29, many professed to be “shocked.”

I was not one of them. Surprised, yes, since he appeared to be recovering from a leg injury and was said to be ready to start the season opener.

However, there is one thing that Luck did as a college student that also was shocking to some: He returned to Stanford for his senior football season in 2011 even as he was projected to be the first pick in the NFL draft.

Luck was humble, had priorities in order

The reason that Luck returned for his fifth year at Stanford? Not to help the team with a national championship or to win the Heisman Trophy that had eluded him after his junior season.

Luck wanted to earn his degree in architecture. According to a New York Times story after he had made that decision, talking about his driving around campus on a bicycle instead of setting sight on a Mercedes,

The image of Luck biking with his peers instead of driving off to N.F.L. riches is fitting. Yet many who do not know him were surprised that he gave up the opportunity to become the first pick in April’s N.F.L. draft to return to Stanford for his senior year.

Luck passed up guaranteed millions to earn a degree in architectural design from the School of Engineering, avoiding the glare of the N.F.L. spotlight to blend in on this palm-tree-lined campus, once home to people like Herbert Hoover and Tiger Woods.

Pete Thamel, “A Diploma, Then the Draft,” Feb. 12, 2011

Luck was a just another guy at Stanford

After Luck had led the Stanford Cardinal to a 12-1 record in 2010, and a win and MVP in the bowl game, the best season in history, he could have written a ticket to the NFL.

However, even then, he demonstrated that he was not the typical kind of NFL-type of athlete. According to the Times profile,

Luck, who announced his decision in a one-sentence news release in early January, felt the allure of one more year on campus with his friends and teammates, who have transformed the culture of Stanford football. He relishes college life: scrimmaging against women’s soccer players with his football buddies each May; using dry spaghetti to demonstrate engineering principles; and having low-key Sunday dinners at Chipotle and Pizza My Heart with his sister Mary Ellen, a freshman volleyball player.

Pete Thamel, New York Times, Feb. 12, 2011

Game is no more fun

Luck struggled when he announced his retirement from the Indianapolis Colts, a decision that made fans of the team angry. However, it came down to some practical considerations, particularly significant injuries over the past few seasons,

I felt stuck and the only way out of it is to no longer play football. It's taken my joy away from the game.

“Andrew Luck retires: Colts quarterback stuns the NFL with 

shocking retirement decision at age 29,” CBS Sports, Aug. 25, 2019

Luck still became the number 1 pick of the NFL Draft after his senior season — when he received his architectural degree — because he was the prototype pro-style QB who was a consensus All-American, winner of the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, and an Academic All-American.

While he finished number 2 in the Heisman voting again, but that award is not uppermost in the minds of NFL scouts. They looked at the upside, and Luck provided that.

In his first three seasons, he won 11 games with the Colts and earned a spot in the Pro Bowl in each year. In 2014, he broke Peyton Manning’s record for passing yards in a regular season, 4,761, while leading the NFL with 40 TD tosses.

However, the Colts fell to the Patriots in the AFC title game, preventing them for a Super Bowl berth.

Then the injuries really started

In 2015, the serious injuries started. According to CBS Sports, here is a list of those he suffered from in his six years for the Colts,

• Torn cartilage in 2 ribs 
• Partially torn abdomen 
• A lacerated kidney that left him peeing blood 
• At least 1 concussion 
• A torn labrum in his throwing shoulder 
• A mysterious calf/ankle issue that led to this [retirement]

CBS Sports, Aug. 25, 2019

Thus, while he lived up to his status as a top pick, he suffered from a plethora of injuries, and he often played behind a porous offensive line,

Luck at times lived up to his billing as a star quarterback, and at others came up short of that status. At his best, he was an electric talent who could make any throw on the field, and also use his legs to create plays outside the pocket and down the field. But he took a lot of punishment throughout his career, playing behind one of the league's most porous offensive lines early in his tenure.

He battled through a lot of hits early on and seemed indestructible at times due to his size and strength, but he eventually wore down both physically, and apparently, mentally.

CBS Sports, Aug. 25, 2019

Tweet summarizes his decision

According to the NFL Insider Ian Rapoport, Luck had been discussing retirement for a while during the preseason,

Ian Rapoport
✔
@RapSheet

The #Colts have known that QB Andrew Luck was seriously mulling retiring for at least two weeks. He’s married, he plans to travel the world, and once the love for the game waned, it sounds like he wanted to step away. So, he did.

8:50 PM - Aug 24, 2019

Marriage and fatherhood

His upcoming role change as a father could have changed matters. In March, he married his Stanford sweetheart, Nicole Perchanec, in Prague, the Czech Republic. According to a story about the wedding in the Indy Star,

It was awesome. It was the best day of my life, and probably the best offseason I’ve ever had…It’s great. We’ve been together for a decade, so not much has changed besides the ring on the finger, and she’s got great insurance now.

Joel A. Erickson, “Colts QB Andrew Luck on marriage to 

Nicole Perchanec,” Indianapolis Star, April 15, 2019.

Perchanec was an outstanding gymnast for Stanford whom Luck men in an architecture class. She worked as an architect in Indianapolis and then earned an MBA from Indiana University in 2017.

Since 2014, Perchance has worked as a field producer for ESPN and NBC Sports, focusing on gymnastics. She competed in the NCAA Women’s Gymnastic Championship for two seasons. They finished fourth in the country in 2010 and 2012, when both of them graduated.

Their baby is due later this year. 

Conclusion

Andrew Luck definitely walks to the beat of a different drummer, just as Thoreau noted that a person with individuality should. He has probably saved a good bit of his tens of millions of dollars that he earned from the NFL, and he and his wife has great employment prospects, so they will not starve.

When things are no longer enjoyable in life, and a person has different options, then making a decision like this makes sense.

And looking at the way Andrew Luck has led his life, this should not be surprising. He won Comeback Player of the Year in 2018, and some even speculated that he could be an MVP candidate this year.

He was also slated to ear more than $20 million this season in salary and bonuses.

But, as Thoreau wrote in Walden, all of that is unimportant.

Football fans may disagree, but Luck has made his decision.