When Andrew Luck walked away from the NFL at just 29, it stunned the football world, especially Colts fans, who had pinned their hopes on the franchise QB leading them to a Super Bowl. Now, years later, Luck is back where it all began, serving as the GM of Stanford’s football team.
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But this transition wasn’t smooth at first. Like so many players, Luck felt the massive void football left behind, and he wasn’t sure how to fill it.
So, the former QB took the first baby step by returning to his alma mater to earn a master’s in education. Stanford felt like home, he says, especially since it’s where he met his wife, Nicole Pechanec, back when they were freshmen.
“My wife and I, we didn’t know what we wanted to do after being in Indiana, but we knew our journey would take us back through Stanford. We met here as freshmen,” Luck told ESPN. “This always felt like home to a certain degree. So, we decided to come back. I did a master’s in education.”
It was a great endeavor for the former Stanford Cardinal to pursue. But a master’s degree can only take up so much time, and once he earned it, Luck still found himself with plenty of time on his hands.
That’s why he also took up coaching, which is how he discovered a whole new way to fall in love with the game of football.
“I was volunteer coaching at Palo Alto High School. I came around to loving the game. Like, loving it in a different way, appreciating it in a different way,” Luck revealed.
It was a good way to fill his time too. But after four straight seasons of watching Stanford finish 3-9, Luck couldn’t just sit by and watch his former team struggle. So, he reached out to the program’s president, Jonathan Levin, and the two began discussing ways to bring the school back to relevance in college football.
Ultimately, Levin knew what he had to do.
“In the middle of the conversation, he just sort of turned to me and said, ‘Look, Andrew, we need this. We need football. This is part of us in a major way. I need you to run it.’”
In late 2024, Stanford hired Luck as the GM of the football team, a new role that’s distinctive to the evolving landscape of college football. Now, he gets to ride his bike to work through the campus daily, and seems in great spirits. After all, it’s where the legend of Luck began.
All in all, it’s great to hear that Luck is doing well post-retirement. Many were worried about his health and well-being after walking away from the game at such a young age.
But Luck has proven it was a smart decision, one he thought through carefully, and it’s paid off in the end. Not everyone is destined for greatness on the gridiron. For Luck, his path was to make an impact on the game in a different way. Which is pretty cool when you think about it.
