To quote one of my close friends, “It’s stupid.”
That was his opinion of Andrew Luck forgoing $50 million in NFL money and staying for his junior season at Stanford.
Agree to disagree.
I love Luck’s move.
In a statement released a couple of days after his season ended, Luck said, “I am committed to earning my degree and am on track to accomplish this at the completion of the spring quarter of 2012.”
I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but with the state of college football — from the BCS being a disastrous system to the Cam Newton dilemma at Auburn to even Luck’s head coach Jim Harbaugh rushing toward the NFL — I was happy to see Luck stay at Stanford.
I don’t want to make my case that Mr. Luck going back to school is good for college football.
What’s good for college football is the game itself.
I once wrote a piece before the 2009 World Series that the MLB needed the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees to meet up in the Fall Classic. My point was that it would be good for the MLB, and it’s what it needed.
I am long off that bandwagon on my opinion of sports.
What is needed is just for the games to be played.
But back to Luck. I applaud him in his quest for his degree, passing on the money and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be a No. 1 draft pick.
If you watched Stanford’s second-half domination of Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl, you saw what Luck did.
I highly doubt that Luck will pull a Sam Bradford and look like a dead fish on the deck of a boat after the former Oklahoma quarterback suffered his season-ending shoulder injury in the 2009 season opener against BYU.
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While injuries are freak accidents and — for the most part — unavoidable, I don’t see Luck or Stanford slowing down next year.
Even with the departure of Harbaugh to the San Francisco 49ers, Luck put his foot down and told his teammates, school, parents, media and the rest of the college football world that he would return to school.
For every Matt Leinart, Vince Young and Mike Williams there should be 20-30 more Lucks.
Unfortunately, I was given the build of a 5-foot-7-inch, 135-pound, skinny pile of bones.
I wanted to be a second baseman and win the World Series, and I wanted to be that wide receiver who made every catch I could to help my team win a championship.
My father, who boasted two degrees in electrical engineering, always instilled in me that I could do whatever I wanted, but I needed to earn my college degree before doing anything I wanted to.
While I am a couple of years older than Luck — and nowhere near having his athletic ability or good looks, and I won’t make millions like he will — I still look up to him for making the decision to earn his degree, especially at an institution like Stanford.
Plus, the money will still be there for Luck in a year or two.
