Andrew Luck Should Stop Being Selfish and Take the Money!

So Andrew Luck, the quarterback at Stanford University, has decided to stay in school and finish his degree.  Here is an excerpt from the Associated Press story on Yahoo! Sports today:


 STANFORD, Calif. (AP)—Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck says he will stay in school for another year instead of entering the NFL draft.

Luck was widely considered to be the No. 1 pick by Carolina if he chose to leave school early. But he made his announcement Thursday that he wants to remain at Stanford so he can graduate as scheduled next year.

Luck led the fifth-ranked Cardinal (12-1) to a school-record 12 wins this season, including a 40-12 victory over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl on Monday night. Stanford is set to finish the season in the top five of the AP poll for the first time since the unbeaten 1940 team finished No. 2.

On the surface it seems like a fairly magnanimous decision.  We see a talented young man eschewing the guaranteed millions of the NFL draft in order to finish school.  Taken at face value one might even mistakenly conclude that Andrew Luck has his priorities straight - that he has somehow risen above the temptations of money and fame, that he understands the value of a college education - but that's a bunch of baloney.  In reality Andrew Luck is not selfless, he is a 21-year-old kid - the type of prized athlete who has always received special treatment because of his immense talent.  His explanation for staying in school also suggests that this is ultimately a selfish decision and one made for the wrong reasons.

Of course he probably doesn't need the money.  Andrew Luck already has everything he could ever want - his family is not going to go hungry and he's a celebrity at Stanford.  However, even if Luck has everything he needs for himself, this type of money would give him a chance to do something real and meaningful in the lives of other people.  The millions of dollars that he stands to lose forever is more than the GNP of a small country.  Last year's top pick, Sam Bradford of Oklahoma, got exactly $50 million in guaranteed money, including a $24 million signing bonus and $26 million to be paid over 6 years.  That's a pretty big lottery ticket that Andrew Luck is holding, and the cost of not cashing it in can be huge.  The most recent player who was projected to go #1 overall but opted to stay in school instead was USC's Matt Leinart in 2005, and he paid a hefty price.  Today Leinart does not have the reputation of a humble, introspective, deep lover of education.  On the contrary, The former Trojan is most famous for breaking up with his then-pregnant girlfriend, and being romantically linked to Paris Hilton.  Leinart, pictured above in the hot-tub, is better known for being an overgrown frat boy than for anything he's done on the field.  Andrew Luck could be headed down that same path. 

In Leinart's case, he lost out on roughly $11 million by staying in school for his senior season.  Alex Smith, the defacto top draft pick in 2005, ended up with $24 million in guaranteed salary.  A year later, after dropping to the 10th pick, Leinart signed a contract worth about $14 million.  By comparison Mario Williams, the first overall choice in 2006, got approximately $26 million from the Houston Texans.  Sam Bradford's $50 million contract last year set a new record for pro football paydays, but in the NFL draft a new precedent is set every year, and contract values creeping steadily higher, Andrew Luck could have counted on an offer from Carolina similar to Bradford's.  Injuries are a part of football.  The list of promising players who have had their careers cut short is long, and their faces are obscured by shadows.  Even assuming that Luck manages to stay healthy, if Stanford fails to improve on its best season in 70 years, or if other pro prospects emerge, Andrew could drop precipitously in next year's draft. 

Luck can finish his degree anytime, but this sort of opportunity comes only once in a lifetime.  There will never be a better situation for him - he has nowhere to go but down.  We're talking about losing a life-changing amount of money, if not for him then for countless other people.  Instead of being devoted to his education, it seems more likely that the 6-foot-4, 235 pound, 21-year-old quarterback (pictured above) would rather spend one more year as the big man on campus at a huge west-coast school than move to Carolina and be put through the ringer of an NFL off-season program.  He's risking an awful lot on that California dream. 

Of course Luck doesn't truly need the extra money, but then why not give something to charity?  If it doesn't matter to him whether he makes $50 million or $20 million when he eventually turns pro, then take the higher sum and donate the extra $30 million.  That kind of cash could go a long way and do a lot of good in the world.  It's enough to feed and clothe literally thousands of people.  If Luck stays in college, that money will be handed over to confirmed cheater and thief Cam Newton, or whoever else might be end up being the #1 pick in Luck's absence.  The money is there right now, this year, and it can be used for good, or it can be used to buy one more year at Stanford.  I guess Andrew is counting on his luck holding out for another year.