{"id":1314279,"date":"2019-09-04T19:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T01:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/manieri-column-what-the-booing-of-andrew-luck-says-about-us\/"},"modified":"2019-09-04T19:56:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T01:56:00","slug":"manieri-column-what-the-booing-of-andrew-luck-says-about-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/manieri-column-what-the-booing-of-andrew-luck-says-about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Manieri column: What the booing of Andrew Luck says about us"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Rich Manieri<\/strong>
BLAINE SHAHAN | Staff Photographer<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

He was once hit hard enough to lacerate his kidney. He woke up the next day urinating blood.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s neither a common experience nor an occupational hazard for most of us. It is if you play professional football.<\/p>\n

In addition to the kidney laceration, he has suffered a sprained shoulder, torn cartilage in his ribs, a concussion and shoulder surgery which caused him to miss all of the 2017 season. This season he was dealing with a calf strain.<\/p>\n

So, citing the physical and mental burden that come with the accumulation of such injuries, Andrew Luck, 29, quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts, decided to retire last weekend.<\/p>\n

Luck officially announced his retirement after the Colts\u2019 preseason game against the Chicago Bears. But the story leaked during the game, while Luck was standing on the sidelines. As Luck left the field in Indianapolis, where he played for seven years, some fans booed him, loud enough to be heard on TV and loud enough for Luck to hear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t say I heard the reaction,\u201d Luck said. \u201cYeah, it hurt. I\u2019ll be honest, it hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

I hope it\u2019s at least of some consolation to Luck that many of those booing him probably count walking to the fridge as an aerobic workout.<\/p>\n

NFL football players are wired differently than the rest of us. These are uber-competitive people who launch themselves at one another with little regard for their personal safety. Their careers are brief \u2014 only an average of 3.3 years, according to the union that represents the players. They leave the game beat up, with damage that often lingers for a lifetime. It\u2019s no wonder when every play is a car crash.<\/p>\n

Yes, they played the game by choice and were well-paid. That doesn\u2019t make them less human. And if a player like Luck decides he\u2019s had enough, that\u2019s up to him and his family.<\/p>\n

The booing of Luck is a lot of things \u2014 shameful, disgraceful, embarrassing, among others. It\u2019s also confusing.<\/p>\n

I love NFL football and watch a lot of it. We buy tickets, and that gives us the right to jeer. But I have to wonder what the booing of Luck says about us as fans, and as people.<\/p>\n

A man decides he can no longer compete at his maximum level because of the pounding he\u2019s endured and walks away, leaving potentially hundreds of millions of dollars on the table. And we view that as an affront. We paid our money after all. He should continue to bleed for us, whether he wants to or not.<\/p>\n

I realize the timing of Luck\u2019s announcement \u2014 two weeks before the start of the regular season \u2014 wasn\u2019t ideal and that the Colts let him keep $24 million in bonuses per his current contract. But these issues are between Luck and Colts. Or at least they should be.<\/p>\n

Instead, it\u2019s all about us and our entertainment, and there\u2019s no room for empathy, even among those who should know better.<\/p>\n

\u201cRetiring cause rehabbing is \u2018too hard\u2019 is the most millennial thing ever,\u201d FS1 commentator Doug Gottlieb tweeted Saturday night.<\/p>\n

That drew a harsh response from NFL analyst and former quarterback Troy Aikman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat qualifies you to decide how someone should live their life?\u201d Aikman tweeted. \u201cSo you\u2019re now the authority on what motivates Andrew Luck? And if his decisions don\u2019t fit into what you think is best for him then you rip him?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bo Jackson, whose NFL career ended prematurely due to a debilitating hip injury, also chimed in.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t criticize a man until you\u2019ve worn his cleats,\u201d Jackson tweeted. \u201cIf you\u2019ve never strapped on the pads you have no business commenting on something you know nothing about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bo knows.<\/p>\n

You might expect such responses from Jackson or Aikman, who has said he suffered at least six concussions during his playing career.<\/p>\n

But what about the rest of us? Don\u2019t our eyes tell us enough about what these men go through every Sunday? Do we need to be concussed or carried off a football field ourselves to understand what led to Luck\u2019s decision?<\/p>\n

Injuries didn\u2019t allow Luck to become the quarterback his skillset indicated he would be when he came out of Stanford in 2012. Don\u2019t think he isn\u2019t aware of that.<\/p>\n

Still, he was very good and he played through the kind of pain most of us will never experience.<\/p>\n

Andrew Luck gave what he had. That should be enough.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2019 Rich Manieri, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Rich Manieri is a Philadelphia-born journalist and author. He is currently a professor of journalism at Asbury University in Kentucky. His book, \u201cWe Burn on Friday: A Memoir of My Father and Me\u201d is available at amazon.com. You can reach him at manieri2@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rich ManieriBLAINE SHAHAN | Staff Photographer He was once hit hard enough to lacerate his kidney. He woke up the next day urinating blood. That\u2019s neither a common experience nor an occupational hazard for most of us. It is if you play professional football. In addition to the kidney laceration, he has suffered a sprained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1314279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 23:29:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}