What if Luck wanted to return next year?

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by BCN#1

Reading about mental stress, physical pain. loss of joy playing the game, the one word that stands out to me is "wife".

He seemed fine until he got married earlier this year and now with baby on the way, methinks this was ultimately his spouse laying down the law. Maybe I am wrong but sure makes sense to me at least.

Who knows, maybe he comes back after a year or two but I would be very surprised given how this has played out to date.

I think it’s a lot more likely that Luck’s priorities changed after getting married and having a kid on the way than it is his wife “laid down the law”. Luck seems like a genuinely nice, caring guy and it’s not just him that the NFL life affects. Everything from being away from his family for long stretches of the year to his physical abilities when his kids are older to the stress of his wife and eventually his kids watching him take a beating on Sundays.

My daughter was born less than a month before 9/11 and I remember the stress and concern I had all of a sudden when flying or doing anything risky after that. It wasn’t about me dying or getting severely injured, it was about how those things would affect her. I’d also been having knee problems for a couple years prior to her being born. They mostly affected my ability to play sports. Recovery from the surgery would put me on crutches for 6 months with full recovery being even longer. I was to busy for that, so I adjusted how often I played sports and just nursed the knee along instead of doing surgery. I remember carrying my daughter down some stairs and each step my knee would give out after bending slightly and I’d drop to the next step. That had been going on for awhile, but doing it while carrying her changed my perspective. I realized my health was going to affect her in all kinds of ways. I opted for the surgery and started to take better care of my body for the long term, instead of being focused on the now.

Let’s not paint Luck’s wife as some kind of shrew or him as being pussy whipped. I’m sure his wife and kid played heavily into his decision, but it more likely simply because his priorities changed. It definitely sucks for us, but we aren’t and shouldn’t be his priority. His family is, as they should be.