Outspoken media personality Pat McAfee has criticized the much-discussed piece from ESPN's Seth Wickersham about the retirement of former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck.
I visited Andrew Luck many times this year, as he broke his silence, searching for deeper reasons for his retirement, a decision that liberated and haunts him, and considers a return to football — but not how so many hope.https://t.co/DoF2vbvOqm pic.twitter.com/zU30NRLT5m
— Seth Wickersham (@SethWickersham) December 6, 2022
"It was like a 45-minute read or something like that. A lot of words," McAfee explained during his show, as shared by Jordan Bondurant of Barrett Sports Media. "I mean there’s a lot of gymnastics that you had to do. Super smart people talking to each other in Seth Wickersham and Andrew Luck, very smart people."
Bondurant pointed out that Wickersham's lengthy article posted on Tuesday morning was separated into 16 sections. McAfee, Luck’s former teammate, added that show contributor Ty Schmidt needed 35 minutes to read the entire piece.
Schmidt told McAfee the article is "all convoluted" and said that 'this is (Wickersham's) writing style.'"
Colin Loughran of the New York Post did well to break the article down and note that Luck told Wickersham the signal-caller's shock retirement ahead of the 2019 season occurred, in part, because "there were some things that when I looked in the mirror, I did not like about myself." Luck's noteworthy injury history left him "self-absorbed, withdrawn, in pain, and feeling pressure" at that time of his life.
"I don’t think I’m a good enough reader for the guy," McAfee said of Wickersham. "I am happy I have smart people that are going to do it."
ESPN has also released a podcast episode about Wickersham's piece:
I won’t be the first or last person you’ll hear say this, but this is a perfectly told story. @PabloTorre & @SethWickersham & the production crew did incredible work.
— jeremy taché (@jeremytache) December 7, 2022
Andrew Luck is endlessly fascinating. https://t.co/xNRnwWakD2
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