The Luck of the Cardinal

Sports is all about the hype. The reason that we even care about two guys like Andrew Luck and Jim Harbaugh is because of the hype they are given. I will be the first to admit I watched and I wanted to know what Andrew Luck would do and where Harbaugh would end up coaching. I, like many other crazed sports fans, help magnify their decisions because I watched, discussed, and examined them. These two guys had to make decisions and they didn't listen to the hype, their choices were right.

Jim Harbaugh spent four years at Stanford. He turned that program around. He was given a 1-11 team and left them with a 12-1 record and as Orange Bowl champions. What else can he do? Sure, he could stay and coach them to a national championship, but that's not a guarantee. And his aspirations were to become a head NFL coach, and now, that is what he is. How can you blame the guy for leaving a program after doing just about all he could do and going to the NFL to fulfill his dream? You can't. He made the right call.

Andrew Luck is one year away from earning his college degree from Stanford University in Architectural Design and you're telling me that going back to do that is a dumb decision? That is one of the smartest decisions a guy could make. He is getting a free ride to a very prestigious school and no one can ever take that away from him. Ok, so people say well he is turning down a number one draft pick and about 30 or 40 million dollars. SO WHAT?! The NFL will still be there, and besides, what if there is a lockout next year? That's a year that he could be sitting around, not playing and not getting a degree, or he could be playing AND getting his degree. Others still say, he's going to have to learn a new system, get acclimated to a new coach. Yeah, that is true. But he will have to do the same thing when he goes into the NFL. It will be a new system, new coach, new policies, new everything. This will just be good practice.

Two guys, two great decisions. Both decisions were surrounded by a considerable amount of hype. But neither guy let it get to them. They made their decisions for themselves, not for anyone else and that's not lucky, that's just smart.