On Saturday, the NFL landscape was turned upside down when one of the league’s premier quarterbacks announced his career at just 29 years old: citing a four-year long cycle of injury, pain and rehabilitation, the Indianapolis Colts’ Andrew Luck decided to call it a career after seven seasons. In those seven seasons, Luck has had tremendous success — just not when going up against the New England Patriots.
The Colts are 0-6 against the Patriots since drafting Luck first overall in 2012, with the two teams meeting twice in the playoffs and four times during the regular season. Needless to say that New England head coach Bill Belichick has prepared his team quite often (and quite successfully) to go up against one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the league. However, his reaction to the news of Luck’s retirement was... interesting:
Q: I wanted to ask you about the big news from the weekend: Andrew Luck, of course, surprisingly retired. You faced him six times, what was it like going against Andrew Luck?
A: Yeah, he’s a good player. I didn’t see that, but I haven’t really... I don’t really follow them. We all have to make our decisions. He made his and I respect it.
The 67-year-old not talking about Luck’s retirement is fully on-brand: he will not go into much detail when talking about a player if his presence (or in this case retirement) does not impact his own club. But the response was still a noteworthy one, if only because of the fact that it can be read like Belichick trolling New England’s long-time rivals who will now start ex-Patriot Jacoby Brissett at quarterback.
No matter how the answer is read, it looks like Belichick is already in midseason press conference form.