Exactly. They end up equating his early retirement with some form of treason. The NFL needs to quit this military bootlicking nonsense. And they need to stop having a national anthem before every game, military flyovers and a color guard. What even is the point of that?
Save that shit for government functions, state funerals, etc. Its a fucking football game.

This I agree with.

He was never as driven by on the field success as Manning. If he was, he'd still be playing.

That doesn't make Luck more cerebral though. It only means he has other priorities, that he is driven by different things.

I don't care if he is more cerebral or not

I do care if he is driven enough to keep playing.

In the end, despite his talent, I'd rather have a guy completely committed to the leadership position being a QB in the NFL entails. For a variety of reasons, he obviously is not.

I have no problem with a national anthem being played before sporting events. They even do it at Saratoga Race Track before the first race. Maybe the anthem should be played before the players come onto the field. It's not a place for protest of the USA (IMO) but if you put the players on the field, they should have the right to take a knee if that's how they feel. Just keep them in the locker room until the anthem is played.

I don't even think he's injured. Doctors and medical staff of all sort couldn't find anything wrong with his ankle. He had been moving fine in training sessions. He's just mentally shot and checked out, using the "ankle injury" as an excuse to quit.

I agree with this too

I started out a very long new thread on this, but didn't have time to do it justice this morning and frankly getting a bit sick of talking about it. Might do it sometime, but suffice it to say, I think this is exactly the case. I don't think anything is wrong with his ankle or calf, its a nice excuse to stop.

And I also think Ballard and Reich, maybe Irsay too, know there is nothing wrong with is ankle. They got sick of the continued procrastinating and symptoms of pain with no cause found and finally had a sit down, come to Jesus talk with him and said "Look your leg is fine, nothing physically wrong. We need a decision, are you playing this year or not? If you aren't ready for the season, we are moving on, we can't do this 'Will he or won't he' anymore, you are either all in on this or you need to retire" He chose to retire.

I think that is why it happened in the last few weeks. Camp was over, preseason is ending, season is starting, they needed a decision from him. Nothing physically is found wrong, are you playing or not?

This is all conjecture on my part, but I believe the following:

Peyton used HGH to recover from his neck injury and when he started playing again and would be tested, he stopped. That's when his arm went noodle on him.

Luck went to Europe to use whatever helped his recovery but was not legal in the NFL and after returning, he stopped doing it and his problems returned.

Both players temporarily recovered and had stellar seasons, but their problems returned

This is only a theory on my part, but I believe it.

HGH won't regrow nerves.

I don't think this is what happened

Like I said, it's only my opinion, but HGH will aid in nerve regeneration.