Pat McAfee on what Andrew Luck did in his first Indianapolis Colts practice, he immediately knew he was special

Pat McAfee recalls first impressions of Andrew Luck

Speaking on a January 17 edition of “The Pat McAfee Show,” former Colts punter Pat McAfee recalled watching Luck show up around ten days late for spring practices but still having a stronger grasp on the offense than everyone else.

He said: “He was late. It was like a week and a half. But his first day there, he made a check that was at the end of the playbook and nobody else had it.

“Like the offensive line had no ______ idea what he was talking about. Wide receivers had no idea what he was talking about. And this is like his first day in the building.

“So he’s like, ‘check, check, check’ goes to something and everybody, like, looks at him. What is that?

“And that was like his introduction to the team. And I think that was when we were all like, ‘okay’.”

Luck’s Colts went on to go 11-6 in a performance not unlike the one Jayden Daniels is currently having. Sure, Daniels and Luck’s skill sets are quite different, but the pattern of winning is not.

Andrew Luck should have stepped down instead of retiring

The Colts quarterback infamously retired during the preseason in a decision that blew up headlines in August 2019. For Luck, it was all or nothing. After a hot start to his career, the quarterback began to suffer lingering injuries that could not be repaired and remain repaired. In other words, he was injury-prone and eventually the injuries did him in.

Of course, there were a couple of paths he could have taken instead. One path would be to get into coaching. The other path as a player in his 20s would be to work as a backup quarterback.

If his body couldn’t stand up to the rigors of the game 16 games per season plus the playoffs, it most likely could have held up to standing on the sideline for most of those games.