Andrew Luck retired from the NFL<\/a> just days before the 2019 season started, and the official story is that wear and tear got to him, causing him to fall out of love with the game.<\/p>\nHis former tight end Eric Ebron has unveiled a new twist to the story that appears to pit general manager Chris Ballard against Luck in a bizarre ultimatum.<\/p>\n
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Chris Ballard apparently gave Andrew Luck an ultimatum. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201c[Luck] don\u2019t tell nobody this. This is the backstory,\u201d Ebron began. \u201cHe\u2019s so tired of injury that he just doesn\u2019t want to do surgery. You know who the man is around there that gets on everyone\u2019s nerves. Big draws over there behind that desk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe tells Andrew, \u2018You\u2019re either playing this year or we\u2019re moving on,’\u201d Ebron said. \u201cWho the f\u2013k would tell Andrew Luck that? Right? Andrew Luck now says, \u2018I\u2019m not going to be ready, I\u2019m tired of playing with pain. I\u2019m going to retire.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Luck who suffered a pile of serious injuries, including concussions, a shoulder injury, a lacerated kidney, and an abdominal tear, opted to call it quits on his NFL career.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d signed a six-year, $140 million contract in 2016. Given he only fulfilled two years of that contract, the Colts could have forced Luck to pay back the $24.8 million in signing bonus money, though late Colts owner Jim Irsay opted not to make Luck return the money in an act of good faith and appreciation for his six strong years with the team.<\/p>\n
Since then, Luck has found a career with his alma mater, Stanford University, where he is the general manager of the football team.<\/p>\n
![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4dbeec0d25778afa5c9575de52c7c838.jpeg\"\/)
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Andrew Luck retired after just six years in the NFL. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Ballard has struggled to find a QB since Luck departed Indianapolis, with his selection of Anthony Richardson with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft largely considered a bust.<\/p>\n
He may have figured things out with former Giants quarterback, who he just signed to a two-year deal<\/a> worth $88 million that could surpass $100 million with incentives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Luck Chris Ballard Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it. Andrew Luck retired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2059],"tags":[6502,5422,2005,42963,7,2004,392,2381,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-852451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-andrew-luck","9":"tag-chris-ballard","10":"tag-colts","11":"tag-eric-ebron","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-indianapolis","14":"tag-indianapolis-colts","15":"tag-indianapoliscolts","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116344037331187494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/c123bd4973aa0e28c911ae08e96ca350.jpeg\"\/)
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