Andrew Austen Luck is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons with the Indianapolis Colts. Following his collegiate success, he was selected first overall by the Colts in the 2012 NFL Draft.
Luck made an impact within his first year by setting the rookie records for most passing yards in a season and game while leading a Colts team that went 2–14 the previous year to an 11–5 record and a playoff berth.
In the postseason, Luck oversaw the NFL’s second-largest playoff comeback during the 2013 playoffs and helped the Colts reach the 2014 AFC Championship Game. He earned Pro Bowl honours during his first three years and led the league in passing touchdowns in 2014.
For his success, Luck was named Comeback Player of the Year and voted to a fourth Pro Bowl. However, citing the injuries he sustained, Luck retired ahead of the 2019 season. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2022.
Andrew Luck Colts: Why did Andrew Luck leave the Colts?
Luck, 29, retired after playing six NFL seasons in seven years. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft missed the entire 2017 season while recovering from a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder, and he did that after playing the entire 2016 season through pain.
As it turns out, that 2016 season planted the seed for Luck’s premature retirement. After that year, Luck told himself he would never put himself in another situation that would jeopardize his long-term health — a situation he found himself managing over the summer of 2019.
Luck was dealing with a mysterious ankle injury — “a myriad of issues,” as he says — that was not improving. He was stuck in a cycle of injury, pain and rehab, and he figured retirement was the only way out of that cycle.
In six seasons with the Colts, Luck compiled 23,671 passing yards, 171 passing touchdowns, 1,590 rushing yards and another 14 scores on the ground.
That doesn’t include his numbers in the playoffs, where he led Indianapolis to four wins and, in 2014, a trip to the AFC championship game. He was a four-time Pro Bowl selection and the 2018 NFL comeback player of the year.
Luck’s football story, though, can’t be told without the injuries that ultimately led to his retirement in 2019.