Friday, July 22, 2022

A Ring to it

 Big debate out there now on the Magic Twitter Thingy about Andrew Luck, and, no, it's not because he's coming back. He's NOT. He NEVER WAS. Not EVER-EVER-EVER.

I'm sorry, what was I was saying?

Oh, yeah. Andrew Luck. Big debate.

The debate is about whether or not Luck should be enshrined on the Colts' Ring of Honor in Lucas Oil Stadium. Some people say yes. Some people say no. Some say yes, but not just yet.

The Blob chooses Door No. 3.

The Blob says of course Luck should eventually be on the Ring of Honor, but the etiquette for these things suggests a decent interval should pass before it happens. He only just retired three years ago, albeit with famous (some say notorious) abruptness. That still sticks in the craw of  the wanna-be warrior set, which is itself famous (or notorious) for questioning the gumption of those with whom they have nothing in common, gumption-wise.

"'I just can't take it anymore'," they like to say of Luck, in mocking tones.

"He quit on his team!" they also like to say.

Here's what the Blob says to all that: Oh, balls.

First off, no one who mocks him for leaving the game before he turned 30 has any clue whatsoever how unimaginably violent professional football is. None of them has a clue what that violence does to the human body over time. And none of them has a clue how that especially applied to Luck -- a generational talent who was carelessly broken by a front office that put him out there behind a cheesecloth O-line that couldn't block a random thought.

Pretty soon Luck's medical dance card was full up.

Torn rib cartilage? Check.

Torn abdomen? Check.

Concussion (likely several), lacerated kidney, torn labrum in his throwing arm, strained calf muscle?

Check, check, check aaaand check.

So he walked away. He could have not waited until the season was about to start to do it, but the body keeps to its own schedule. and pain doesn't wear a watch. After awhile the former decides enough is enough, and the latter becomes too much. And whatever decision there is to be made gets made for you. 

That Luck waited so long to listen, thus putting the Colts in scramble mode, is a testament to his stubborn toughness than anything. 

And the quitting on his team business?

Please. Sooner or later, everyone "quits on his team". Every time a guy retires, he is, in essence, walking away from his team. Enough with that noise.

So it says here, anyway. And so it always will.

It also says here that a man who left pieces of himself on so many football fields in service to a franchise deserves to be recognized by that franchise. It helps if you're also one of that franchise's top four quarterbacks of all time, which Andrew Luck is. 

So recognize him, eventually. It has a Ring to it, after all.

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