Andrew Luck: The Good Luck Cardinal

By Josh Roth

No. 1 pick, $50 million guaranteed and a good chance to start right away and live an NFL dream…will have to wait. 

Andrew Luck decided that he wants to stay another year at Stanford, which has left many puzzled and dumbfounded as to why one man could make such a decision.  To most of us, the money and his positioning stand out most in the draft.  How can one man pass up that much money and the glory of being a No. 1 pick?

He must be stupid, right? Where can he go from here? He has already won a BCS bowl game and proven he is one of the best quarterback prospects in the last 10 years.  And what more can he prove? There seems to be many reasons why one in Andrew Luck’s shoes should jump to the NFL, especially after seeing Jake Locker skip out last year and pay for it; Locker's stock has fallen quite a bit, and he's lost money in the process.

However, money is not always the driving factor. To the normal fan and spectator, it seems like an idiotic move, but realistically, he will be fine.  Sure, he runs the risk of getting injured; sure, his draft status may change a bit; and sure, he may lose a bit of money at the beginning.  He can also gain a lot too from staying. 

For starters, he may not be ready for the next level; he may think there are still things he can tweak and fix while he is in college that can improve him as a quarterback for the NFL. Or how about his intentions of earning his degree at Stanford? He only has a year to go and has stated that that is his goal; getting a degree in architectural design isn’t too shabby of a degree to obtain. He also has a chance to be the clear Heisman favorite going into next season with some hope and realistic dreams of a National Championship. 

Now, of course, that could take a bit of a hit if Jim Harbaugh leaves, but even if he does, he has put the university in a very good position to hire a top notch coach, because of course who wouldn’t want a chance at coaching someone like Andrew Luck and having a chance to win the National Championship in their first year at the university? And who knows, maybe this gets Jim Harbaugh to stay for at least one more year.  

Even more than that, why not enjoy the rest of your college experience? Many say those are the best years of your life, and the NFL isn’t going anywhere. Barring a career-ending injury, he should still be a Top 10 pick and thus still receive millions of dollars and quite possibly be drafted into a better situation.  Oh, and his family is doing quite well financially, so I don’t think money is too big of an issue for him.

There is also no certainty with a potential NFL lockout looming.  There is a slim possibility it happens before the draft, and thus Lucks gets no contract right away, or maybe the season is cut in half or doesn’t happen.  At least he is guaranteed football in college—guaranteed to have some more fun and has something to fall back on in case football doesn’t work, which I am sure it will. 

To me, it’s preposterous that we are criticizing a kid for staying in college, for getting his degree and for committing to his school; I know a lot of other college teams and their fans would love to have someone like Luck.

I wish Andrew Luck the best of, well, luck (sorry for the obvious and overused pun).  After all, aren’t we told the smart thing to do is to stay in school, and there aren’t too many schools, education wise, better than Stanford. 

Kudos to you, Andrew Luck.  It’s refreshing to see athletes like you.