I was walking along Pennsylvania Street in downtown Indianapolis when my phone started vibrating, and continued to vibrate for the next hour. I felt numb and didn’t know how to react. I was angry, I was sad, and the worst case scenarios for the Colts started to swirl around in my head. This was supposed to be their year! This was supposed to be the year that the Colts won the Super Bowl and Andrew Luck was named MVP. Within seconds it seemed like the season was over before it even started.
As I write this, it’s been about 60 hours since the news broke that Andrew Luck would be retiring from the NFL. The first couple hours were the toughest, but now I feel that I have worked my way through the 5 stages of grief of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
Acceptance came yesterday while watching the press conference of Jacoby Brissett and head coach Frank Reich. I started to think about how this team is more talented than the one that Brissett inherited in 2017 and became a little more confident in their chances. This team is much better at nearly every position, Brissett has taken all of the first team reps this off-season and Frank Reich led the Eagles to a Super Bowl victory with back-up quarterback Nick Foles just a few years ago.
I will never be mad about a player making their family and their health a priority. However, now that I reflect and believe I can think a little more clearly on the situation there are still 3 things that I believe will always frustrate Colts fans.
- The timing. Announcing this two weeks before the season is crazy. It’s not surprising that fans and especially season ticket holders were frustrated by this season-altering news.
- The lying or hiding of information by the Colts organization. They made it seem like Luck was going to be fine and he was going to play. They gave us the impression that he may miss the first week or two but he was still going to play. Many fans had finally forgiven the Colts for stringing them along in 2017, but now it will take some time to build that trust again.
- Ryan Grigson. His inability to build an offensive line to protect Luck will always stick with me as one the reasons Luck’s career ended so early.
The Colts play their first regular season game in less than two weeks. It’s time for us all as Colts fans to get to that acceptance stage and get fully behind Jacoby Brissett as this team’s starting quarterback.