INDIANAPOLIS – Jimmy from the Colts has officially spoken.
And, as much as Jim would like for it to be true, Andrew Luck isn’t returning to the Colts anytime soon.
Jim Irsay sat down with CBS4 Sports Reporter Chris Widlic on Thursday and put to bed the recent Luck rumors.
“I’ll say this, Colts fans really need to digest this fact that (Luck’s) more retired now than he was a year and a half ago,” Irsay told Widlic. “He is retired. I mean, only Andrew knows of course, because it’s his decision. But I can only say he definitely is retired and there’s really no wiggle room or rumor, as much as people would like to hear that.
“Believe me, I wish it was true and I was hiding some big announcement that was coming two days from now, but that’s just not the case.”
If you want further confirmation of Irsay’s comments, the Owner’s own Twitter account re-tweeted the clip of the comments.
Whispers on social media as of late—coupled with the Colts unanswered quarterback situation—have stirred up the possible Luck return comments.
Irsay’s comments puts out the fire much more than even the Owner did himself last week, when he also was asked about any recent conversations with Luck.
“No, I really think it kind of stands where it stands,” Irsay said last week when asked if he had recently spoken to Luck. “Like I said before, Andrew is retired and he knows we would love to have him back but only he could ever answer that question deep in his heart and his soul, ‘Hey, do I really want to come back and be a quarterback for the Colts again in the NFL?’ It’s easy for us. He knows how much we’d love to have him be our quarterback. There is just no question about that, but at the same time we know for it to work out, he has to be the one that says, ‘I’m ready. I want to really create a little history in unprecedented aspects.’ If (Michael) Jordan could give him the fax number and the exact, ‘I’m back,’ how to write that out, I’d be all happy for it, for Michael to give that to him. It’s about two years, so I’ll be checking my fax machine. But I don’t really know if we’ll see that. I think he is happy, he is raising his daughter, he has a wonderful family. He’s a great Colt and he knows that he can come back any time he wants, but at the same time we respect that he has made that decision and we don’t want to be annoying by always saying – there is no point to it. He knows that we would love to have him back but only he could decide that and right now he is retired.”
Luck, 31, does remain under team control for one more year, capping the 5-year contract extension the Colts gave him in the summer of 2016.
The No. 1 overall pick in 2012 has now been retired since August 2019.
