Andrew Luck reflects on biggest sports lesson he learned from his father

Colts quarterback Andrew Luck comes from a football family. His father, Oliver Luck, played in the NFL and then led NFL Europe, and now he works for the NCAA.

Andrew has plenty of respect for his father and learned a lot from him, but what was the biggest lesson he learned through sports? That was the question that Alex Flanagan asked him recently for her site ilovetowatchyouplay.com, and he said that it was to practice like he plays.

“Best sports advice from my father...” Luck said. “I remember in fifth grade football, we had practice. I don’t think I ate anything all day. I maybe had one tortilla. I showed up to practice light headed. He was the coach. Obviously, I couldn’t practice. He yelled at me in front of all the kids, made an example of me. He made me sit on the sideline, hydrate and go home. Then gave me a lesson in the car ride home about, ‘Hey, practice is important. You have to show up. You have to eat. You have to do everything important you would do for a game. For practice, you must respect that.’ Treat practice like you would a game.”

It’s good advice, and it has certainly paid off for Andrew Luck over the years as he has turned into one of college football’s best quarterbacks at Stanford before being drafted first overall by the Colts in 2012 and becoming their franchise quarterback. Luck loves football and takes practice seriously, and he can thank his dad for that. There are certainly a number of other lessons that he learned from his father, and I’m sure that several other Colts players also could share similar stories.