Andrew Luck didn't retire too soon. He retired before it was too late.
All right, so it's my turn at bat on Luck. Bottom of the order.
I say good for him. Congratulations for getting out while the getting's good at 29 years of age with his considerable wits still about him.
Of course the talk show/unsocial media furor over Luck's retirement hasn't been surprising, because people are idiots _ and that includes certain numbskull members of the media.
I may be a numbskull, but I wasn't shocked. With all the insanity going on in the world, we're shocked over the retirement of a quarterback who's had the living crap beat out of him?
Football isn't played behind a desk.
His body, his life, his career. Heck, if a pope can retire, as Benedict XVI did _ and, really, who has a better job than the pope and can wear better authorized hats? _ then a football player who is tired of rehabbing from multiple injuries certainly can.
They're calling Luck soft, so millennial. Was Rocky Marciano soft when he retired early? Jim Brown? Barry Sanders? Gronk? Koufax?
Would we rather see Sugar Ray Robinson losing to Memo Ayon in Tijuana? Willie Mays not knowing where center field was with the Mets?
Says Gronk, who missed a quarter of the games in which he was eligible to play: "I was losing the joy."
And, as Luck would have it: "I haven't been able to live the life I want to live. It's taken the joy out of this game."
Joy. Get it? Joy.
But (alas, alack) we live in a Twitter world, which means we can be remarkably stupid, uncaring, self-serving, prevaricating, useless, exhausting, cowardly, racist, amateur fantasy leaguers _ you know, without a life.
My guess is every person who booed Andrew either took him in their fantasy draft (which never should take place before the final exhibition game, anyway) or was too inebriated to know better.
A good number of Colts "fans" have asked for their season ticket money back, as if they went to see "Rochelle, Rochelle" and got the understudy instead of Bette Midler.
Bonne chance. There's more likelihood of them skiing this winter on an Indiana mountain.
Football, perhaps by its violent, macho nature, more often than not is an addictive drug. Some guys never get enough of it. They live it, breathe it and play too long and all too often don't change clothes until they're tattered. Wealthy Alex Smith is trying to come back from a horrible leg injury. He loves football. That's fine. It's worth it for him.
Not everyone is Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Eli Manning or Brett Favre.
Luck already had talked about the possibility of this to his bosses. Who knows, there could be more surgery ahead. Luck has earned $97 million playing the game. He's leaving untold millions on the table.
He's made enough. He's had enough.
Has he screwed the Colts getting out at such an inopportune time? As I see it, the Colts screwed Andrew, putting such an awful line of defense in front of him.
If he announced it earlier, would Indianapolis brass have been able to find someone other than backup Jacoby Brissett, gone to the quarterback orchard and picked a plum?
Andrew's tired, he's hurt, he's married, a baby is due soon, and if he ever truly loved the game he can play brilliantly _ and that never may have been the case _ he fell out of it.
It's up to the individual. People have been clamoring for me to retire for many years. To hell with them.
