Andrew Luck: The NFL’s Most Perplexing Trash Talker

Andrew Luck: The NFL’s Most Perplexing Trash Talker

The Colts Quarterback Drives Defenders Crazy by Offering Compliments; Head Games or Genuine Kindness?

By Kevin Clark in the Wall Street Journal

Andrew Luck’s legend is growing.

Sure, there’s buzz about how he has thrown for more yards in his first three seasons than anyone in NFL history. Or the fact he’s led the Indianapolis Colts to the playoffs in each of his NFL seasons, after clinching a spot this year with Sunday’s win. But among NFL players, the gossip around Luck concerns a peculiar brand of on-field chatter so confusing and brilliant that no one knows quite what to make of it.

“In all the years I’ve played football I have never heard anything like it,” said Washington Redskins linebacker Ryan Kerrigan. “Nothing even close.”

Luck has become famous for congratulating—sincerely and enthusiastically—any player to hit him hard. Any sack is met with a hearty congratulations, such as ”great job” or “what a hit!” He yells it after hard hits that don’t result in sacks, too. It is, players say, just about the weirdest thing any quarterback does in the NFL.

When New England pass rusher Rob Ninkovich pulverized Luck last month in a Patriots’ 42-20 win, he got the customary congratulations. As Ninkovich tells it, he found himself paralyzed with confusion by the well-wishes, so he blurted out “Thanks for...uh...accepting that hit?” before running back to the huddle.

Defensive back Nolan Carroll, who has hit Luck three times and with two teams, remembers the first time it happened while he was with the Miami Dolphins last year. Carroll, now with the Philadelphia Eagles, was blitzing off the edge and got to Luck, knocking him down just after he released the ball. Carroll was walking back to the huddle when he heard “Great job, Nolan!” He turned around, searching for the person who said it—maybe it was a teammate, he thought. “Then I realized it was Luck who said it. I’m like ‘what’s going on? Aren’t you supposed to be mad?’” Carroll said. “So then I’m the one who gets ticked off because an upbeat attitude isn’t something you see.”

This, players say, is Luck’s brilliance, even if it is unintentional. According to Baltimore Ravens pass rusher Pernell McPhee, who sacked Luck in October, quarterbacks generally do two things when they are sacked: They complain to the referee, looking for a roughing the passer penalty, or they do nothing and absorb their pain in silence. A handful will get angry if the sack was particularly fierce (don’t get McPhee started on Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers). But Luck is so dramatically different that those who knock him down have no clue what to do. “You love it but at the same time, you really, really hate it,” said Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin.

“You know if you hear a quarterback get mad, you are in his head,” Carroll said. “With Luck, you thought you hurt the guy, you hear ‘good job’ and you just say ‘aw, man.’”

The Wall Street Journal contacted 12 NFL players who recorded a sack or knockdown of Luck, and each player said he received the same message from Luck. Some were different than others—Kerrigan’s sack resulted in a fumble, so Luck, who was scrambling to retrieve the ball, could never offer his congratulations. So he looped around later in the game to tell Kerrigan how great he was doing.

“You want to say thank you but then you say ‘wait a second--I’m not supposed to like you!’” Kerrigan said.

Luck did not respond to requests for comment. Those who know him best say the most likely reason behind his comments is that he’s just a really nice guy. Former Stanford teammates, for instance, say there’s likely an element of gamesmanship, but that’s secondary to his sincere respect for a good play—even one that resulted in him getting knocked off his feet.

‘With Luck, you thought you hurt the guy, you hear “good job” and you just say “aw, man.”’

—Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Nolan Carroll

“My wife and I raised all four of our kids with appropriate values, with respect for other people and to be kind and generous and I guess that carried over to the football field,” said Luck’s father, Oliver, a former NFL quarterback who is now the athletic director at West Virginia University.

Oliver Luck said he first heard that his son was congratulating those who sacked him when Andrew was playing high-school football in Texas. Oliver said Andrew had played so many sports in middle school throughout the Houston area that he knew most of the opposing players he faced, so saying “great job’” was natural because he was among friends.

Washington Redskins linebacker Trent Murphy, Luck’s teammate at Stanford, said Luck would interrupt film sessions to praise an opponent’s hit of him. The harder the better.

“He’s yelling ‘nice hit, nice hit!’ and we’re like ‘uh, no one else does this.’”

Murphy said Luck’s “over-the-top positive” demeanor has never included genuine trash-talk. “His idea of trash talk is complimenting people,” he said.

Former Stanford tight end Zach Ertz, acknowledged Luck is probably playing head games to some extent. But Ertz said that’s not Luck’s main concern. For evidence, he submitted that if Luck himself makes a great play, he usually says nothing—no matter the situation. Ertz said Luck, who is 6-foot-4, can dunk a basketball “pretty effortlessly.” And even when dunking on teammates, he never howled in delight. “He’d just giggle and jog away chuckling because he knew he got the better of you.”