Good Luck

Roman philosopher Seneca once prophetically wrote that "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity".  The preparation has been all too obvious over the last two years for Stanford's Andrew Luck as he made himself into the presumptive No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL draft. He was runner up in both 2010 and 2011 in Heisman Trophy voting... no mean feat. He was named the Offensive Player of the Year in the Pac-12 Conference in both 2010 and 2011. In 2011 alone, he was rewarded with the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Award as college football's player of the year. He was also named a 2011 First Team All American. On top of these feats, he led Stanford to its highest rankings in decades.

Opportunity has also been highly visible this week. In one swift move, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay cleared all obstacles to Luck's seemingly  inevitable rise in the Hoosier State by discarding the Colts favorite son, Peyton Manning. Couple this with the Colts having the worst record in the league in 2011 and therefore secure in the right to first choice from this years crop of recruits. Almost everyone expects Irsay to follow his first maneuver with the selection of Andrew Luck as his new rookie and starting quarterback.

Heated debate will surely continue to follow, and has indeed already flown around the NFL, as to the wisdom of Jim Irsay's line of reasoning. In a purely business sense his thoughts are clear; Manning was too much of a guess, too old and too potentially fragile to take the chance. And despite, love and loyalty, Indianapolis is still a business concern, no more - no less. Coach Andy Reid had to make the same difficult decision with his protegee Donovan McNabb at Philadelphia, and it was the right one then. Time will only tell if the Colts have been as astute.

Listen, Peyton: It's time to quit

The NFL never has had it so good. With record attendance numbers, monster TV ratings, and both labor peace and mega broadcast deals locked up for the next 10 years, it’s all rainbows and lollipops in commissioner Roger Goodell’s world.

Super Bowl XLVI was the most-watched sporting event ever in the US, Giants receivers Victor Cruz and Mario Manningham had the best seats in the house at the Grammys on Sunday night, and the NFL draft will cause twice as much buzz on Twitter as any presidential debate in 2012.

And that’s why Peyton Manning needs to retire.

As the quarterback and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay continue to maneuver in a strategic chess game of public relations and misdirection, my thoughts are on the league, the NFL shield, and the future of the game’s greatest ambassador.

Whether Manning has been medically cleared by doctors or not — Manning was cleared by two different doctors last week, but Irsay insists he hasn’t been officially cleared by the Colts organization just yet — the fact the longtime face of the NFL had three very serious neck surgeries in 19 months should cause widespread concern and caution. For whatever reason, it hasn’t.

As my fellow members of the media scramble to photoshop images of number 18 in Redskins and Dolphins jerseys this week, I can’t help but side with TNT’s Charles Barkley, amazingly the one clear-minded, rational thinker on the subject with a national platform. Last week, Barkley told reporters: “My first opinion is that I don’t think Peyton Manning should play football again. You’re talking about a neck. I know he’s got a couple of young twins. I don’t think he should play football at all.”

The four-time league MVP had spinal fusion on Sept. 8. That surgery, the last of the three, was, by far, the most serious.

Reports of Manning’s return to the field were breathlessly covered by an adoring NFL media last week. Agent Tom Condon got the word out to his cohorts in the press that the workout went well and the reviews were rather positive, across the board. With the exception of NFL Network’s Mike Lombardi, who said Manning struggled throwing the ball to his left, the response was overwhelmingly rose-colored.

"He threw it accurately, he threw it with a good, tight spiral and he threw it with velocity,'' said former Colts GM Bill Polian, now serving as a media talking head, himself. “Marked progress” was the term Polian used on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption.”

But this isn’t Joe Namath playing on two bad knees for the Rams. This isn’t Joe Montana slinging it for the Chiefs with a surgically repaired elbow. It’s not Bo Jackson fielding fly balls with a new hip in Comiskey Park. This is, arguably, the most recognizable face in NFL history coming off major neck surgery.

Call me a coward, call me a worrywart, call me a Debbie Downer — but that still worries me.

Click here to read the full Fox Sports article by Peter Schrager.