It's been nearly five years since Andrew Luck last played in the NFL and although he's been out of the league since retiring during training camp in 2019, Colts owner Jim Irsay would like everyone to know that the quarterback's rights are still owned by his team.
If that was unclear to anyone around the NFL before May 7, it's not anymore after Irsay fired off a tweet late Sunday night that made that very clear.
If any NFL Team,attempted to contact Andrew Luck (or any associate of him)… to play for their Franchise - it would be a clear Violation of the League’s Tampering Policy.
— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) May 8, 2023
Although Irsay didn't mention any specific team in his tweet, he seemed to be putting the Washington Commanders on notice. Over the weekend, ESPN.com reported that the Commanders were so desperate for a quarterback during the 2022 offseason that they "even phoned about retired Andrew Luck."
The story didn't make it clear who the Commanders called when they "phoned" about Luck, but based on Irsay's response, it seems that the Commanders didn't reach out to anyone in the Colts organization. As Irsay noted, if the Commanders reached out directly to Luck or a representative of Luck, then that would be tampering.
The Colts owner also probably wasn't too happy to see that it was the Commanders who possibly reached out to Luck. Irsay has never been on great terms with Dan Snyder and Irsay was even one of the very few owners who went on the record about how the NFL needs think about getting rid of Snyder.
As for Luck, when he retired in August 2019, he still had three years left on his contract with the Colts and if he ever comes back to the NFL, his contract will be reinstated and the Colts will own his rights for three more years. If any team got caught trying to contact Luck, they could potentially get hit with a big punishment. In August 2022, the Dolphins got docked two draft picks, including a 2023 first-rounder, for tampering with Tom Brady.
ESPN actually reported LAST YEAR (March 2022) that the Commanders had considered Luck, but it appears that the report from this year gained more traction because of what it specifically said. Last year, the report didn't say whether the Commanders ended up reaching out to Luck, but this year, it specifically said they "phoned about" Luck and that's likely what drew the Ire of Irsay.
The bottom line here is that if any NFL team wants to talk to Luck about possibly making a return to football, that team better talk with the Colts first. Of course, even a team got permission to talk to him, there's almost a zero percent chance he'd agree to make a comeback and that's because he seems pretty content in retirement.
