Originally Posted by ChoppedWood
(Post 127517)
Can't speak for others but I can for the record state I wasn't drunk in my rage last night and it hasn't eased any this morning.
I am really struggling to process all the pieces here and I can't move off the point that this guy just reamed us in a huge way.
So he has a strain that is of near zero concern in mini-camps and HE makes it clear HE is going to be ready for camp. Standard Luck giggly "I will be ready for camp" nerdness...
Okay, so draft is out the window, and realistically had he told them at the end of last year he was hanging them up- who knows, but realistically with a Ballard type I don't see him giving up a ton of the future to try to move up in a draft class where the "biggest" guy is a Michael Vick wannabe and a Daniel Jones is a guy people covet, while Haskins could take 3-5 years to shape into a long term answer... If we had known before hand, yeah we could probably make that move for Foles, so there's that taken off the table if he KNEW this that far back...and I think he did, but that's just my opinion.
So let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say that his real decision came between mini and training camp. Here's where I just don't buy this guys BS that this is an injury thing and the ankle is the final straw.
Camp starts, he takes a few days off at the beginning due to this lingering pain, steps on the field and looks like he's primed to go. Then he has to step back due to pain. Then they come out with the BS the last couple weeks that he can't practice due to lingering pain...BUUUUUT no one, not anyone with any access says shit about him wearing a boot. He's not present, then last weekend he's in warm ups he's running around laughing while going through exercises... NO BOOT. Yesterday, he didn't go through warm ups but several times I watched him come up to work with a QB and demonstrate a plant and drop back- no wincing, NO BOOT, stands the entire game, laughing, doing standard Luck shit...
Now in his press conference he's talking all this shit about how he's still in pain, it's a myriad of issues, strain, impingement, etc... and talks about how one of his first orders of business is to do what's necessary to stop this pain in his ankle.
I'm no doctor but if you are having that much of a problem, do you jump around and laugh with guys while doing it, or do you ask a doctor to immobilize the thing and get you on some crutches so you don't have pain- regardless of whether or not you get paid to play football for a living?
To me, it just doesn't add up. My read is he's known for quite some time he was not going to do this anymore but until last weekend he didn't have the balls to just come out and tell them it was over so he strung them, and us, along. Ballard made some mention of tough conversations they have all had recently and I think he specifically mentioned last Monday as sort of a trigger point.
I think it might have been those guys telling him they were tired of the hem hawing and they were moving on and now the ankle thing is just a soft landing spot for everyone to go their own ways and save as much face as possible instead of the org saying "yeah, Andy sort of threw all these guys that wear this horseshoe under the bus, thanks for F'ing us Andy".
If so, then screw him for not letting them have the option of trying to upgrade the position, and I'm not saying they would have chosen to do so because I really think Ballard is a JB fan and is willing to roll with him, but if so, he trapped them in a corner by waiting this long to finally do what he should have done a long time ago- probably around the SB I would imagine.
So on that basis, no, I do not hold a grudge for him retiring, hell yes I would be inclined to retire if I had $91M in salary and probably another $150M in endorsements sitting in my account. But to do it this way, 2 weeks before a season and IMO blame it on what IMO is made up- to me, that's the mark of a real coward that doesn't deserve my respect.
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