Why Andrew Luck Quit: Chris Ballard's Role Explained
Discover why Andrew Luck retired early: friction with GM Chris Ballard over injuries and team pressure. Carton discusses the story and how it went down.
Video Transcript
Chris Ballard's the GM out there in Indianapolis.
He was telling a story about why Andrew Luck left Indianapolis.
And like s- I love when these stories come out years later, we get the truth of why a guy- Right in the, in his prime, as a top five quarterback in the NFL by most accounts, decided just to say, "I'm done playing football."
So as the story goes, and I'm blocking on the player's name, I apologize, Fab, I'm sure you guys can find it on social media after the show.
The, he tells the story that Andrew Luck was tired of being banged up and being hurt all the time, and did not- Yeah wanna have what he deemed as unnecessary surgeries to fix problems.
He wanted his body to heal on its own.
So Andrew Luck goes to Chris Ballard and says, "Look, I'm tired of being hurt.
You know, like, the offensive line, I'm getting killed out here.
I do not wanna have surgery, so I'm just letting you know I'm not having surgery.
I might not be ready, come week one, 'cause I need my body to heal."
Chris Ballard then says to him, "If you don't play, we're gonna trade you or cut you.
But we're not dealing- What?
with this crap from you."
And because of that- Oh Andrew Luck said, "Oh, is that right?
I quit."
And that's why Andrew Luck walked out on the Indianapolis Colts at the start of that football season.
Because Chris Ballard said, "I don't wanna hear that you're not gonna be ready.
We're paying you a lot of money, you're our franchise quarterback."
Essentially, my words, not his, "Man the F up, you're a football player, act like it.
We gotta play hurt, that's what we do."
And rather than be sensitive to a player saying, "I'm broken right now physically, I want my body to heal," he said, "Either you play or you're gone."
So then Andrew Luck made it easy for him.
"Go F yourself, I quit."
Now, if you're a Colts fan, and you wake up today and you see that story And to be fair, the story's unchallenged right now.
Chris Ballard's gonna have a chance, I'm sure, this week or, by next week, to respond to that, because, you know, reporters are gonna ask the question.
But if you're a Colts fan, and you look at the quarterbacks the Colts have gone through since Andrew Luck was there, whether it's Carson Wentz or Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones or, dare I say, 90-year-old Philip Rivers, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Don't you demand that it, that Chris Ballard gets kicked to the curb and fined?
He, he should've been fired.
He should've been fired.
Like, it's unbelievable that they would let this happen.
And, and I, I don't wanna speak ill of, of the dead, but how does the owner, Jim Irsay, who was alive at the time, how does he allow it?
How does he pick his GM instead of his player?
How does he not intervene there?
Yeah, great question.
Now, he may have been in the middle of, you know, his issues at the time.
'Cause, uh- Possibly he had well-known drug issues, I'm not sure the timing- Yes, he did how that matches up.
Yeah.
It's a great question.
Possibly.
But, like, if I'm Like, I'm a Jet fan.
We talk about this all the time.
You know, I've never had a quarterback in my lifetime.
You're in Philly.
Obviously the Jalen Hurts story's not going away.
I was talking to- Right Howard Eskin about it yesterday.
'cause he's taking victory laps- Right and he was on it, you know, before anybody else.
Mm-hmm.
And I love Howard, but- Good.
Yeah you know, that's what Howard does, right?
Um- Uh-huh but, yeah, it turns out he might not be wrong.
Like, there's obviously issues right now with Jalen Hurts.
Maybe you run Jalen Hurts out of town.
But the Colts had a franchise quarterback.
And- Yep the GM decided, "I'm gonna be a tough guy with the, my franchise quarterback," and set my franchise back 20 years by saying, "Hey, hey, loser, either you play or we're getting rid of you"?
If I'm a Colts fan- If- like, I want blood.
Yeah, that's the other problem.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like if he's not gone, we riot.
Like, I'm not, I'm not a- Yes violent person.
Like, I, no- But that would make me violently mad I, no joke, i- if I'm the Irsay relative that, I forget the gal's name.
yeah, the daughter, right?
That's running the squad.
Uh-huh.
And I see this, this, podcast interview with a former Colt player, I'm not waiting till Monday.
"Hey, Chris Ballard" No "you need to be in my office now.
Because I- Yeah wasn't running the team when this happened, so I don't know what happened.
Maybe my dad didn't tell me, the true story.
But I need to- Mm-hmm look you in the eye, and you need to tell me, did you say to Andrew Luck, 'Either play or we're moving on from you'?
If the answer's yes, then pack your bags," right?
Yeah.
I, I don't even know what to think.
You can't be my general manager.
No.
No.
Plus- No, absolutely not you traded two first-round draft picks for Sauce Gardner last year.
I should have fired you for that
