Immediately after news broke regarding Andrew Luck’s retirement last night, everyone was left wondering why one of the league’s best quarterbacks would hang up the cleats at only 29 years of age.
Most assumed it had something to do with Luck’s mounting injuries, but there are some who dug a little deeper and came up with a rather interesting theory: that Andrew Luck was headed to the XFL to play for his father, XFL CEO and commissioner Oliver Luck.
When you think about it, this rumor isn’t all that crazy. However, it would seem rather impossible, as the Luck would need the Colts’ permission to leave for the XFL.
Via ProFootballTalk:
Paragraph 3 of the Standard Player Contract makes clear the ability of the team to go to court to block the effort of a football player to play football for a different league: “Without prior written consent of the Club, Player will not play football or engage in activities related to football otherwise than for Club or engage in any activity other than football which may involve a significant risk of personal injury. Player represents that he has special, exceptional and unique knowledge, skill, ability, and experience as a football player, the loss of which cannot be estimated with any certainty and cannot be fairly or adequately compensated by damages. Player therefore agrees that Club will have the right, in addition to any other right which Club may possess, to enjoin Player by appropriate proceedings from playing football or engaging in football-related activities other than for Club or from engaging in any activity other than football which may involve a significant risk of personal injury.”
In short, the Colts still own Luck’s rights, which gives them the right to go to court in order to prevent their former quarterback from playing in the XFL. And while the organization was kind enough to allow him to keep that $24.8-million that they rightfully could have recouped, I wouldn’t expect them to be so accommodating to Luck should he suddenly feel the desire to play football again — only in a different league.
