Between video from practice, preseason games, and media conferences, football fans have seen plenty of Andrew Luck over the past month. Fans should continue to see plenty of him during the course of the football season, but one place you won’t see the Colts rookie is in commercials. That’s because Luck made the conscious decision to avoid endorsement deals during his rookie season.
Luck decided he already had enough going on and told The Indianapolis Star last week that he wanted his primary focus to be on football, not making money on the side.
“I really didn’t have much time,” Luck explained to Bob Kravitz. “And I wanted to make sure I had time to handle the stuff that mattered, whether it was moving into an apartment, finishing school or learning the playbook. There was so much going on, I figured the less time I spent promoting myself or doing ads, the better for me. I figured I’d wait and hopefully, at some point, a big fish will come along.”
Luck’s approach has been the opposite of Robert Griffin III, who beat Luck to win the Heisman Trophy, and then was selected one pick behind the Stanford product in the NFL Draft. RG3 is omnipresent thanks to his deals with Subway, adidas, and Gatorade, among others. But just because their approaches are different doesn’t mean Luck thinks Griffin is going about it wrong.
“And really, to each his own. I don’t necessarily think my way is the right way. It’s what’s best for each person. It’s fun to see Robert capitalizing on his situation.”
Luck says he may reconsider his stance after the season, but he believes now is not the right time for him to do endorsements.
Even though the Colts quarterback is choosing not to pick up extra income for the moment, he might not be losing money in the long run. If he has a breakout season, he could be even more in demand after the year, and then he would command more money from potential sponsors.
We think his decision is admirable. As long as you’re taking care of business on the field, things will usually fall in place off of it. The converse usually is not true.
