Andrew Luck. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
Former No. 1 overall pick and Indianapolis Colts superstar quarterback Andrew Luck visited the headquarters of his former team on Friday.
August will mark five years since Andrew Luck shocked the NFL by announcing his retirement just a couple of weeks before the start of the 2019 season. You may recall that Colts fans at Lucas Oil Stadium booed Luck upon learning the news, which interestingly broke during Indy’s preseason game against the Chicago Bears.
On Friday, Luck made a rare public appearance in Indianapolis, per ESPN’s Stephen Holder. Luck visited the team’s headquarters and even broke his silence on the abrupt retirement and cold reaction from Indy fans:
“We were not perfect. I know I was not perfect. All of us wished we’d had multiple Super Bowls and done things and sort of vanquished some of those enemies that we didn’t quite ever get to. But I could probably speak for all the other guys, and I know I could speak for myself again — it wasn’t perfect, but we tried our best. We tried our hardest, and I hope we gave folks something to cheer about and something to be proud of. And I do get the sense that we [did].”
Per Holder, Luck was there for a fundraiser led by former Colts head coach Chuck Pagano. The former HC and the Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center organized the event, Holder noted, with Luck receiving an invitation from Pagano.
Andrew Luck was drafted first overall by the Colts in 2012. Unfortunately, the back half of his once-promising career was derailed by injuries. From 2015 to 2017, Luck appeared in just 22 total games and missed the entire ’17 campaign recovering from shoulder surgery.
The Colts Haven’t Been The Same Without Andrew Luck
Incredibly, the Colts have used five different Week 1 quarterbacks since Luck’s retirement: Jacoby Brissett in 2019, Philip Rivers in 2020, Carson Wentz in 2021, Matt Ryan in 2022 and rookie Anthony Richardson in 2022.
Since Luck called it quits, the Colts have only made the postseason once. That was in 2020, where they were eliminated by Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills on Wild Card Weekend. For comparison’s sake, the Colts won four playoff games with Luck and went as far as the AFC Championship Game in 2014.
The Colts have a promising core in place with Richardson, Jonathan Taylor, Michael Pittman Jr., DeForest Buckner and Kwity Paye. Coming off a surprise 9-8 season in 2023, the pieces are there for Indy to return to the playoffs in 2024.
