Andrew Luck's retirement sends an important message

Four years ago, only a few seasons removed from being a top-10 pick, Tennessee Titans quarterback Jake Locker quit the NFL at 25. His career hadn’t lived up to its promise, but the ability was there, and, were he willing, Locker could have logged five years or so as a backup, collecting steady paychecks with relatively little bodily risk.  Locker had his share of injuries, but ultimately the deciding factor for him was a lack of desire. He simply didn’t want to put in the obsessive level of detail work needed to be a viable NFL quarterback. Locker’s retirement in 2015 coincided with that of young linebacker Chris Borland and a few others, prompting a panicked conversation about whether players would start fleeing football en masse out of concern for long-term health risks. A mass exodus of players from football never occurred, yet the NFL has little reason today to feel great about its long-term prospects on the heels of the retirement of Andrew Luck, one of the league's leading lights.  Luck’s abrupt exit f

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