It has never gotten any easier.
Colts' Andrew Luck retirement announcement still shocks NFL on historic date originally appeared on The Sporting News
Six years have passed.
For the Indianapolis Colts and their fanbase, it hasn't gotten any easier.
On August 24, 2019, Andrew Luck took the podium after a preseason game and announced he was retiring from the NFL.
Colts fans, and football followers around the world, haven't forgotten where they were in that moment.
This was a former No. 1 overall pick, a star quarterback, retiring out of the blue at 29 years old.
The moment has been in the spotlight lately, thanks in part to a wonderful feature in The Athletic about Luck, and also because the Colts are onto another starting QB since Luck after naming Daniel Jones the starter.
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It's still hard to believe it happened.
Luck had dealt with pain for years, more pain than pretty much anyone knew. But it was still so abrupt. Luck had spent the preseason with Indy before making the call to step away.
"I fell out of love," is what Luck told The Athletic recently.
In his absence, the Colts have struggled. They're 48-51 in the regular season season the retirement, with one playoff berth that resulted in a first-round loss.
Since Luck, the Colts have started Jacoby Brissett, Brian Hoyer, Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger, Nick Foles, Gardner Minshew, Richardson and Joe Flacco at QB. Richardson is the only one to have made starts in multiple seasons.
Luck is now the general manager of the Stanford football program, trying to bring his alma mater forward into this new, modern world of college football in which an academically focused program that plays in a conference based on the opposite coast has its work cut out for it. The Cardinal lost their season opener to Hawaii on a walk-off field goal.
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And somehow the legacy of Luck's pretty much unprecedented move, at least in the history of QBs, hasn't left.
The Colts could still use Luck, who is still just 35 years old.
But he's long gone, and that night six years ago now will continue to loom large over Indianapolis for a long time.
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