Captain Fear
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- Mar 20, 2019
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Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians was on hand for the start of Andrew Luck‘s NFL career and he was as surprised as most other people to find out that the quarterback was retiring on Saturday night.
Arians was Luck’s first offensive coordinator and spent most of Luck’s rookie season in Indianapolis as the interim head coach while Chuck Pagano was battling cancer. Arians, who has also battled cancer and other serious health issues, said he knows “it’s really, really hard” to go through the cycle of pain and rehab that Luck described on Saturday night.
“I know he’s been struggling with this latest injury but the last time I talked to him, he was still fired up about the year and the team,” Arians said, via the Tampa Bay Times. “Knowing his toughness, and his mental toughness, this does surprise me. Something has got to be wrong somewhere because I know he loves the game so much. I [broadcast] two of his games last year and he was running off the bus to come say hi and tell me how the team was doing and the young receivers and how excited he was. To see it, that was very disheartening.”
Buccaneers quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen was also in Indianapolis for Luck’s rookie season and said that he knew Luck was “contemplating” retirement recently. He said the news still “knocked the wind” out of him because of how much joy Luck took from playing the game.
That joy was nowhere to be found when listening to Luck on Saturday night and his decision has shaken up plenty of people around the league over the last couple of days.