Beardless and golden, Andrew Luck was drafted by Colts 10 years ago to be team's savior
Dana Hunsinger BenbowINDIANAPOLIS -- He came to the Colts a 22-year-old bookworm trying to fill shoes the size of a football monster named Peyton Manning. He came beardless and golden.
As the cameras flashed inside Radio City Music Hall and he smiled beneath his ball cap pulled down low, Andrew Luck told the world he knew exactly what he was up against.
He had just been picked No. 1 in the 2012 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts in New York City. Luck wore a suit and held up a royal blue No. 12 jersey next to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Luck was there to be the Colts' savior, a franchise quarterback, to win over a fanbase still reeling from the loss of Manning, their beloved quarterback who had won a Super Bowl and who, a month before, had been let go by the Colts due to a neck injury and contract situation.
As Luck was interviewed that April night, he told reporters he had already pondered the uphill battle in front of him as he replaced one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
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He knew he had to prove to a Colts fanbase that a flip-phone-carrying, bike-over-car riding, board-game-playing, college engineering major could be as revered in Indy as Manning.
"I realize you could go crazy trying to measure yourself to Peyton Manning every day. That would be an insane way to live," Luck said. "I know his legendary status, really. Huge shoes to try and fill. ... If one day I can be mentioned alongside Peyton as one of the football greats, that would be a football dream come true."
A decade has passed since that 2012 NFL Draft and what could have been from a majestic, glitzy night in New York City lingers.
What could have been for the quarterback with an uncanny wit, explosive power and athleticism, a genius football mind who loved reading late into the night -- a quarterback who at 29, after seven seasons with the Colts, abruptly retired in 2019.
Luck had NFL greatness, Super Bowl victories, future Hall of Famer, legendary quarterback status in front of him, said Stanford coach David Shaw. And that’s what brings Luck's college coach almost to tears.
"You always hoped that when the top five NFL quarterbacks of all time were listed, Andrew would be up there," Shaw said. "Some of us were so hurt because we wanted all those things for Andrew.
"But that was selfish of us because Andrew needed to do what was best for Andrew."
'Colts luckiest franchise in history'
Rick Venturi remembers shaking his head in disbelief. How could a franchise be so charmed? First Manning and now Luck? NFL teams rarely get premier quarterbacks one right after another.
Should Luck stick around with the Colts as Manning did, the team could play nearly a quarter century with an elite quarterback.
As that golden Luck draft pick approached, Venturi was working in St. Louis, 243 miles away from the team he had helped coach from 1982 to 1992. He was appearing on St. Louis radio shows, national shows, giving his perspective on the upcoming draft.
"The Colts are the luckiest franchise in the history of the world," Venturi remembers saying over and over again.
In 1999, the team had gotten Manning. He came to be Indianapolis' messiah, ending 15 years of quarterback instability. Manning transformed the team, gave Indianapolis clout as an NFL city and brought home its first Super Bowl ring.
"The team goes on a tremendous decade run," Venturi said. "Manning transformed the franchise into one of the very best. Manning becomes the best of the best. He became a bigger than life figure here."
But going into the draft, the Colts had finished the 2011 season 2-14 with Kerry Collins, Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky replacing Manning, who was out after having spinal fusion surgery.
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Fighting back tears at a news conference a month before the draft, Colts owner Jim Irsay announced the team and Manning were parting ways.
"It wasn't (Irsay’s) decision. It wasn't my decision. Circumstances kind of dictated all of that," Manning told reporters. "It's not what either of us wanted. It's just kind of the way it worked out to be."
Seven weeks later...
With the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL draft, the Indianapolis Colts select Andrew Luck of Stanford University
"After just one bad year, not a series of bad years, the Colts have one bad year and they are sitting and looking at the next transformational hire," Venturi said. "Oh my god, how lucky can you be? The quality the Colts were getting with Luck? Unreal."
Luck at Stanford: Don't compliment me
Quality is a perfect word to describe Luck, said Shaw. It's never difficult to coach elite players who are great people, hardworking, loyal teammates with supreme talent -- and who also have humility.
That's exactly who Luck was as a quarterback at Stanford, said Shaw, who started as Luck's offensive coordinator and ended as his head coach.
Shaw will never forget the day Luck came to him in private: "Coach, don’t compliment me anymore. Just tell me the things I need to work on."
For the rest of the season that’s what Shaw did, or tried to do. Luck was so athletic and so powerful, Shaw had to search for any negative. Shorten your stride and your drop, Shaw finally told him.
As Luck's senior season at Stanford approached, he made the decision to come back for a final year.
"He is already the best player in America," said Shaw. "So, he comes back and I said, 'You can coast through this year and still be the best player in America and still be the No. 1 draft pick, but I know that’s not what you want.'"
Of course, Luck would not coast. Shaw laid out goals for his quarterback and he surpassed every one. Luck ended his career at Stanford with a 31-7 record in 38 starts. He was a two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up.
And in 2012, Luck was exactly what the Colts needed.
"There was a standard there of quarterback play that I didn’t think was going to drop off," said Shaw. "There is one thing to come in and have high expectations you can’t meet. I thought Andrew was going to meet those standards. I knew he would."
Chuck Pagano was thrilled to see Luck coming his way. He possessed all the intangibles you look for in a quarterback, Pagano, the Colts' coach from 2012-17, wrote in an e-mail to IndyStar.
“Andrew was a generational talent."
'Football wasn't his life'
It was 2011 and the Colts didn't have Manning. As the season started, teams across the nation started chanting "Suck for Luck." The Colts were well on their way.
"But you know, they almost didn't suck enough," said Chris Hagan, sports director at Fox 59, who covered the Luck-Colts era.
With three games left in the 2011 season, the Colts were 0-13. They won their next two and had a final game against Jacksonville. If the Colts won that game, their No. 1 pick vanished.
They lost by six points to Jacksonville and it turned a franchise upside down, said Hagan.
"If they don't have the No. 1 pick, would they have gotten Andrew Luck? Would Peyton have stayed?" Hagan said. "The franchise turns on getting Andrew Luck."
That 2012 offseason was unreal for Hagan. He went to the press conference as the team said goodbye to Manning. He was set to fly to Palo Alto for college pro day, but first made a detour to Denver to see Manning introduced as a Bronco.
Then the next month he was in New York City for the draft. As Luck was announced as quarterback of the Colts, Hagan knew he would be a game changer.
But as he watched that draft night -- and as he covered Luck for the next seven seasons -- he noticed something different about him, different from the likes of Manning, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger.
"The one thing that always struck me about him from the very beginning," said Hagan. "It never really struck me that football was the most important thing in is his life."
Playing in Manning's shadow
Coming to the Colts wasn't easy for Luck, said Venturi.
In December 2012, eight months after Luck was picked by the team, Venturi and his wife moved back to Indianapolis.
Luck was finishing up an 11-5 season, leading the Colts to second place in the AFC South and setting an NFL rookie record with 4,374 passing yards.
"What was amazing to me when I moved back was the feeling for Manning and the dislike by so many people that the Colts let him go," Venturi said. "I'm thinking, 'What a lucky team to have Luck,' but I'm realizing the impact Manning had on the city.
"People's reactions were a little stronger than I thought."
It seemed Luck would have to play in Manning's shadow for a while, a shadow that might only be lifted with a Super Bowl win, Venturi said.
Inside Indy sports bars, Hagan would notice Manning jerseys still hanging on the walls, but no Luck jerseys.
In his seven years with the Colts, Luck won 53 of 86 regular-season games he started. The Colts won AFC South titles in 2013 and 2014 and made the playoffs four times, including the AFC championship game in 2014.
"Winning cures everything," said Hagan. "That took care of any doubt about Luck."
Coaching Luck 'was a privilege'
As Luck won, his beard grew. And he grew on the people of Indy. They adored their self-proclaimed nerd of a quarterback. A Twitter account named Capt. Andrew Luck, imitating a Civil War version of Luck, went viral.
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As season after season wore on, with Luck at the helm, Colts fans began to get excited, Hagan said. Maybe he could be Manning reincarnated, albeit with a different personality.
"He would make jokes like he wasn't above you. He was just one of the guys," Hagan said. "Win, lose or draw, after the game he would take questions, he would talk, he would take the blame."
And he took the time to make himself better each day -- from the very beginning, Pagano said.
After the Colts drafted Luck, he was finishing up at Stanford. Yet, Pagano said he was amazed to see him arrive in Indianapolis with significant knowledge of the team's offense.
"At some of our earlier practices after the draft I remember Andrew making specific checks and audibles that we hadn’t installed with the rest of the team yet," he said.
As intelligent as he was, Pagano said Luck was extremely coachable, and he still had the desire to learn.
"His work ethic and competitiveness were off the charts, and he quickly developed into one of our leaders," Pagano said. "I’m proud of what we accomplished as a team, especially in some of Andrew’s earlier years when we reached the playoffs in three consecutive seasons.
"Having the chance to coach him was a privilege."
'Part of our heart is broken'
Luck stood at the lectern inside Lucas Oil Stadium August 24, 2019, painfully, obviously devastated that he was leaving the Colts. He tried to fight back tears, but they came anyway.
"I'm going to retire, this is not an easy decision," Luck said after a Colts preseason loss to the Bears. "This is the hardest decision of my life. But it is the right decision for me."
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Luck said injuries had taken his joy of the game away.
"I've been stuck in this process, haven't been able to live the life I want to live," he told reporters. "After 2016, I played in pain and was unable to practice, I said I wouldn't go through that again."
Colts owner Jim Irsay put his feelings about Luck's retirement simply: "Part of our heart is broken."
Many hearts were broken. Colts fans who had come to adore the quarterback who had replaced Manning. Teammates who saw so much football greatness ahead for Luck. And his former Stanford coach.
"What we wanted for Andrew was what we believed he was headed for, multiple Super Bowls, a hall of fame career and noted as one of the best ever," said Shaw. With Luck's retirement, Shaw said he had to step back and think about Luck.
"It was the right decision," he said. "The amount of pain Andrew was going though, the difficulty he was going through, he would have been doing it for us. Not for him."
Shaw still talks to Luck and said he is physically, mentally and emotionally healthy. He is a husband, a father and looking toward the next stage of his life. He quickly told Luck after the shock of his retirement faded: "I've grown to be excited for you."
Still today, Hagan can't help but think what might have been.
"I don't know if sad is the right word," he said. "But what the Colts missed out on as a player. He was just a special guy that brought so many great moments. What plays did we miss out on?"
Seeing Luck loving his new life, his non-football life, takes some of the sting away, Hagan said -- some of the sting of what the Colts' beardless, golden savior who came to the team in 2012 could have accomplished.
"But I've said this quote a million times about Luck and it's true," he said. "He's one of those guys that was always just as happy being Clark Kent as Superman."
Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.
NFL DRAFT
Thursday: 8 p.m., 10 minutes per pick; Colts do not have a selection
Friday: 7 p.m., 7 minutes per pick in the 2nd round, 5 minutes per pick in the third; Colts pick 42nd and 73rd
Saturday: Noon, 5 minutes per pick for Rounds 4-6, 4 minutes for Round 7; Colts pick 122, 159, 179, 216 and 239