Weighing in after everyone else has; from reasonable to completely stupid (Hello, Doug Gottlieb).
There are times when sports transcends its place in our society. It can help move our country into a better place (Jackie Robinson). It can bring a country together in shared joy (Do you believe in miracles?). And it can help heal after tragedies (San Francisco Earthquake, JFK, 9/11).
However, most of the time professional sports is nothing more than big businesses making a lot of money by paying grown men a bit of that money to play a game. It’s business and it’s the business of entertainment. Nothing more.
We try to make it more. Especially in football we talk about it in terms taken from warfare. We make it seem as if these players have an obligation to us, the fans. Because we root for them they must do everything to entertain us. (Until they are traded or sign with another team, of course). We don’t care about the toll on their bodies or their families. This is SPORTS!
If an accountant manages to save up enough money to retire early we would all be jealous. The businessman to sells his company for millions is envied.
But Andrew Luck isn’t an accountant. He didn’t found an internet company. He’s a football player who has millions in the bank and has spent the last four years either getting injured or recovering from injuries. And he’s had enough.
We fans, who were shocked when Junior Seau took his life, when we saw the sad ends of Mike Webster and Kenny Stabler, when we hear of the problems Jim McMahan continues to have; well, we don’t care how hard it is on Andrew Luck. He’s a really good quarterback and if he can still walk he should be playing. We wouldn’t quit!
So easy for us outsiders to say. We don’t have any idea what it takes to recover from those injuries. The pain, the long intense hours in the recovery process have no meaning to us. But Andrew Luck knows. And he knows what it’s like to not just be sad about what’s happened to older football players but to be scared because he’s going down the same path. The fire that burned in him has been put out and he walked away.
More power to him.