Andrew Luck Reveals When His Love for Football Returned

The Stanford Football GM revealed the answer on Up & Adams during Super Bowl week.

Jan 14, 2026; Stanford, California, USA; Stanford Cardinal football General Manager Andrew Luck watches the game against the North Carolina Tar Heels in the first half at Maples Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images | Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

In the summer of 2019, Andrew Luck shocked the football world. Fresh off of a Pro Bowl and a Comeback Player of the Year campaign in 2018 that saw Luck lead the Indianapolis Colts to the NFL playoffs, expectations were sky high for Luck and the Colts in 2019.

After all, their star quarterback was healthy and looking like he was ready to take the franchise to the promised land. But at the end of preseason, Luck shockingly announced his retirement at the age of 29, leaving behind his playing career in the middle of what could have been considered his prime seasons.

Then, for the next few years, Luck left the spotlight and kept a low profile. No social media, no interviews, nothing. Just a former quarterback living a quiet retired life and recuperating from all the injuries that he suffered over the course of his seven-year career.

But in 2023, Luck teased a return to football in some capacity when he resurfaced as a volunteer assistant coach at Palo Alto High School. About a year later, Luck officially returned to football in a high profile role where it all started for him, as the general manager for Stanford football.

Now, entering his second full season in charge of the Cardinal program, Luck is on the center stage of the football world again as the leading face of one of college football's most historic programs. Many wondered if Luck would ever come back to football, and now that he has, questions have moved to when Luck decided that a return to football was what he wanted.

Talking to the Up & Adams Show during Super Bowl week, NFL reporter Kay Adams asked Luck that very question, sparking a candid response from the four-time Pro Bowler.

"Certainly retiring, walking away from the game, was difficult and something I knew I needed to do, and feel great about," Luck said. "At some point, [and] I don't know if it was a singular point, it was like 'whew, I miss the game of football.' Part of that pushed me back into volunteer coaching at Palo Alto High School for a couple of years and building an incredible respect for coaching.

"At some point, I realised I love this game, I love it in a different way. I came to terms with walking away that there’s a beginning and there’s an end to stuff and by walking away from football, that was an end to playing football. I love the game. It’s in large part why I’m back at Stanford as a general manager, which is this awesome Venn diagram overlap of football and Stanford—the two things, two of the things I do love most."

Luck came back to Stanford to revitalize a program that was once a perennial top 25 contender in the 2000s and 2010s. In recent seasons however, especially since the transfer portal and NIL became a big part of college football, the Cardinal have struggled to be nationally relevant, finishing 3-9 for four straight seasons from 2021-24 before improving to 4-8 in 2025.

Not making a bowl game since 2018, Luck has been hard at work on recruiting, fundraising, NIL opportunities and everything in between, hoping to build a strong roster that can contend for championships and return the Cardinal to the national spotlight.