INDIANAPOLIS – You have just become the highest paid player in the NFL.
How are you going to celebrate your new $140 million contract?
Naturally, by attending a dinner at the Indianapolis Children's Museum, where earlier in the day you helped announce an addition to encourage museum visitors to engage in and learn about physical activity.
That was Andrew Luck's hump day.
In the morning, Luck attended the unveiling ceremony, where his architectural background went into the designing of the $35 million project at the world's largest children's museum.
At night, time for the dinner on behalf of the Children's Museum, thus concluding a day that will significantly impact the city of Indianapolis on a multitude of levels.
And, in the middle of all that, there was that whole contract thing.
Yes, Andrew Luck is unlike many professional athletes and now his paychecks will surely indicate that.
Jim Irsay has been in this (fortunate) situation before---tasked with handing out a contract the entire NFL world will have their eyes on.
Even dating back to the early 1980s and the "bitter battle" (as Irsay put it) with over a $700,000 deal, the Colts are used to these magnitude of deals.
"It's a big deal when you sit down and start to talk face-to-face with your franchise quarterback about getting something done," Irsay says. "It's no mystery that the franchise quarterback obviously has the most leverage, to get the best sort of deals, and just total numbers and guarantees."
Irsay called the process with Luck "quick, smooth and productive" and said this won't be the final contract No. 12 signs in Indianapolis.
While the Colts were able to get Luck's deal done a bit quicker than Manning's (Luck was scheduled to become a free agent next March, with a franchise tag likely under that scenario), Irsay applauds how both players looked at the bigger picture.
"With Peyton, and certainly with Andrew, there was some 'self-sacrifice,' just some real consideration about making sure we could pay that nucleus of 10 to 12 guys around Andrew, like it was around Peyton," Irsay said on Wednesday.
The Colts have already begun steps toward that, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.
As Luck begins his ascent through the next handful of seasons, you couldn't help but notice on Wednesday how those around the NFL reacted to the money coming to No. 12.
Even former teammates Pat Angerer (“well deserved”) and Jerrell Freeman (“he’s worth every penny”) were lauding the eye-popping deal coming to Luck.
In Luck, the Colts have a quarterback who already has three postseason wins and one that offers rare perspective in how to handle everything that comes with being a player of his stature.
"I've never seen him more motivated to have a great season," Irsay says of his newly signed signal caller. "That fire is in his eye in a special way.
"We're very blessed to have him, and he's very excited to be a Colt."
