Andrew Luck announced his retirement from the NFL on Saturday, though it certainly wasn’t an easy decision.
One Boston Celtic can relate to the emotions that accompany news like this: Gordon Hayward.
Hayward spent the 2017 season on the bench after sustaining a gruesome ankle injury in the Celtics’ season opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers. And with his return uncertain at the time, Hayward entered a dark place. So he knows exactly how Luck is feeling at the moment.
“It sucks; you feel isolated,” Hayward told NBC Sports Boston’s A. Sherrod Blakely. “It feels like a job because you’re not getting to do the fun parts of it. And you always have those (thoughts), ‘What if I’m not the same player?’ You have to bottle that and just focus on the present … I understand exactly where (Luck is) coming from.”
That said, Hayward has one piece of advice for his fellow 29-year-old athlete: “You have to lean on your support system. … You can’t try and take that all on by yourself.”
Wise.
