Andrew Luck — Colts profession ‘not good,’ nonetheless ‘really feel the love’ in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS — As he walked off the sector for the ultimate time, Andrew Luck was holding in a fancy mixture of feelings.

His beautiful choice to retire in August 2019 had simply turn into public throughout the fourth quarter of an Indianapolis Colts preseason recreation, and Luck was immediately being showered with boos as he headed for the locker room at Lucas Oil Stadium.

However on Friday, when Luck made one in every of his first public appearances in Indianapolis since that night, these reminiscences had been distant. Luck acknowledged a sophisticated tenure with the staff however mentioned he got here away with principally fond reminiscences.

“We weren’t good,” mentioned Luck, the No. 1 choose within the 2012 NFL draft. “I do know I used to be not good. All of us wished we might had a number of Tremendous Bowls and executed issues and kind of vanquished a few of these enemies that we did not fairly ever get to. However I may most likely converse for all the opposite guys, and I do know I may converse for myself once more — it wasn’t good, however we tried our greatest. We tried our hardest, and I hope we gave of us one thing to cheer about and one thing to be happy with. And I do get the sense that we [did].”

Luck was again at Colts headquarters Friday evening to take part in former coach Chuck Pagano’s Chuckstrong Tailgate Gala, a fundraiser for the Indiana College Simon Complete Most cancers Heart. Pagano, who famously underwent remedy for leukemia throughout Luck’s rookie season, personally invited Luck.

On the occasion, Colts proprietor Jim Irsay donated $1 million after Luck and Pagano efficiently accomplished a problem through which they threw footballs to knock down a sequence of boards.

Luck has saved a low profile since his retirement and moved from Indianapolis to Northern California, the place he’s enrolled in graduate college at his alma mater, Stanford.

Though he nonetheless makes frequent journeys to Indianapolis to go to buddies — he and his spouse, Nicole, have even retained their Indianapolis 500 tickets, he mentioned — Luck has gone to nice lengths to remain out of the general public eye when on the town.

That is why his look at Friday’s occasion represented a large shift for somebody who was all the time uncomfortable with the highlight and has a sophisticated legacy, given his abrupt retirement after simply seven seasons and 4 Professional Bowl choices.

“I definitely really feel like Indianapolis is an enormous a part of the material of who I’m and the place life has gone and highs and the lows and all the pieces in between,” Luck mentioned. “It feels very actual. So, yeah, I definitely really feel the love, in a way, from the town and I hope individuals know it is reciprocal. We love this place.”

After a few years of plotting his subsequent strikes, Luck has settled into his teachers and is pursuing a grasp’s diploma in schooling. He is additionally now a volunteer coach at close by Palo Alto Excessive Faculty, which has given him a wanted alternative to “reintegrate” the sport into his life, he mentioned.

“Soccer gave me so much,” Luck mentioned. “Most significantly, once more, the relationships and the experiences with those that I like, like Chuck. I feel a part of me feels — and I do not imply this in a tacky means — however a part of me feels prefer it’s my flip to provide again into this recreation, and that is what feels proper at this second.”

And, only for the file, regardless of a lot hypothesis on the contrary within the years after he walked away, Luck mentioned a return to the NFL was by no means a consideration.

“After I retired,” he mentioned, “that a part of it was put to mattress in my thoughts.”