The Indianapolis Colts will have to resort to the backup quarterback, Jacoby Brissett, for the immediate future following Andrew Luck’s shocking retirement at the age of 29-years-old.
Nobody was more furious than Colts fans that booed him out of the stadium on Saturday night. But there were some self-righteous Internet goons that were thirsty to give their hot takes on social media too.
And here are some of the absolute worst takes following Andrew Luck’s retirement.
It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that professional athletes are sometimes spoiled multimillionaires who are paid far more than what they actually deserve compared to the rest of society.
Police officers and public school teachers are grossly underpaid in America.
But unfortunately, the market dictates what someone is worth and professional athletes are the epitome of that.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck might not have lived up to expectation after he took over Peyton Manning’s job back in 2013, but anybody who knows football has always considered him a tier-one QB and at the very least, the top of tier two.
Luck shockingly announced his retirement on Saturday night because he’s been, in this cycle of “injury, pain, rehab, injury, pain, rehab. And it’s been unceasing, unrelenting, both in season and offseason, and I felt stuck in it. And the only way I see out is to no longer play football. It’s taken my joy of this game away.”
He also wants to spend more time with his family and even admitted to falling out of love of the game he wants cherished.
Who can blame him for looking out for number one?
Apparently, a lot of people can. Luck was in the stadium during the Colts’ third preseason game on Saturday night when fans started receiving alerts on their phone that their QB was retiring. Boos rained down on him as he left the field.
But it wasn’t just the fans, some obnoxious sports media personalities attacked him for his decision.
Dan Dakich of sports radio show “1070 the Fan” wrote, “I have family working in steel mills..cops..teachers making far less and this guy is “tired”….. my backside.”
What he’s saying, in essence, isn’t wrong. But how can you really fault someone for wanting to spend more time with his family and the fact that his health is deteriorating so quickly?
We all know about how concussions cause CTE, which can drastically cause chemical imbalances in the brain to the point of suicide. That’s what happened to Junior Seau. After he committed suicide, when they did the autopsy, his brain was consumed by CTE.
ESPN’s Sarah Spain responded to Dakich’s take by writing, “What does Luck owe you? Or anyone? And what does money do for someone who is tired, or hurting, or struggling? Toxic masculinity is so dangerous.”
Toxic masculinity?
What she’s referring to is that Dakich shaming of Luck for retiring is trying to diminish the former Colts quarterback of being less than a man. It’s like you have to choose whether Spain or Dakich are right in this scenario, but that’s not the case. They’re both wrong.
FS1’s Doug Gottlieb of the “Dough Gottlieb Show” wrote, “Retiring cause rehabbing is “too hard” is the most millennial thing ever.”
It’s not a millennial thing. It’s a health thing that doesn’t define a generation. How is this that hard to understand?
No one is even arguing that professional American athletes of decades prior to those now are not tougher than Andrew Luck.
But what is he supposed to do? The man just wants to be with his family. It’s not like his profession has intrinsic value to society like a police officer or a member of the armed forces. He’s just a football player.