Andrew Luck said all the right things Monday.
He feels good John Jerry Jersey , hopes to be full go when training camp begins and believes he will be a better overall quarterback when he returns.
All he has to do now is prove it.
For the first time in more than three months, Luck fielded questions from local reporters about his surgically repaired right shoulder and explained his longer-than-expected recovery might have been at least partially the result of his desire to come back too quickly.
"I think I pushed a little too hard at times. Your body, as I'm learning, will tell you no at certain times and you just have to listen to it," Luck said as the Indianapolis Colts started their offseason work.
"I've gone and skipped steps before and paid for it. Been in pain and not able to help the team. Embarrassed, guilty, whatever. I'm not going to do that again."
Luck didn't go into specifics about what he would, could or should have done differently after initially hurting the shoulder in September 2015.
He missed the next two games then made four straight starts before suffering a season-ending liver injury in November.
Luck opted against surgery that offseason and instead wound up signing a five-year, $140 million contract extension.
In 2016, he started 15 games and had his best statistical season despite continued pain. But he hasn't taken a snap since having surgery for a partially torn labrum in January 2017, and he still isn't throwing regulation-sized footballs. He's been limited to working only with miniature footballs this offseason.
Still, it's progress. And it's a far cry from last October when Luck's throwing regimen suddenly stopped because of continued shoulder soreness.
He spent the next month seeking additional medical opinions before moving his rehab to Europe.
Luck finally returned to the team facility in late December and has spent most of the past three months working out in California with noted quarterback experts Tom House and Adam Dedeaux.
The good news is Luck says he's feeling much more confident in his recovery.
"If I wasn't making progress, it would freak me out and we would have to change something. But I am," he said. "I'm feeling better."
The bad news: Fans have heard all this before.
Whenever Luck gets back, he will be working with a vastly different supporting cast.
New head coach Frank Reich will be calling the plays. Running back Frank Gore and receiver Donte Moncrief left in free agency and receiver Phillip Dorsett was traded to New England for Jacoby Brissett Kenny Stabler Jersey , who started the final 15 games for Indy last season.
Luck might have a slightly different look, too.
"I wouldn't say I'm changing my throwing motion," he said. "And that's a big part of what I've been working on, making sure I'm using my body as effectively as possible to throw a football and not over- or under-compensate in any way."
Some of the Colts' newcomers, such as recently signed free agent Eric Ebron, chose Indy because they believe Luck will be better than ever.
"He was the reason I came here, to keep it honest," said Ebron, a tight end. "It doesn't matter as much where I played, I wanted a quarterback who would work with me the way that I knew I needed him to work with me."
When exactly Ebron and Luck will start working out together remains unclear.
While acknowledging there now is a timetable for his progression, he's keeping it confidential for now.
But the biggest difference between this year's offseason workouts and last year's is that Luck sounds more confident about himself and his shoulder.
"I feel stronger, I feel more fit," he said. "I feel way more confident in myself and I don't look at my shoulder and say 'why are you failing me?' like the guy in 'The Old Man and the Sea.' I feel like I have a bit more grasp of the situation. There is still a bit of a journey left and I'm not going to skip any steps."
NOTE: The Colts have put receiver Rodney Adams on the reserve-retired list. Adams was a fifth-round draft pick out of South Florida in 2017.
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Joining the most exclusive club in football truly hit home Friday for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2018.
Well, maybe not for the one guy missing Patrick Mahomes II Jersey , but certainly for Ray Lewis, Randy Moss, Brian Urlacher, Brian Dawkins, Robert Brazile, Jerry Kramer and Bobby Beathard.
While Terrell Owens was in Chattanooga planning his own ceremony , the other seven men who will be inducted into the football shrine Saturday night attended the Gold Jacket Luncheon in Canton. Their takeaway was tinged with awe.
“I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life,” said Lewis, like Moss and Urlacher a Hall of Famer in his first year of eligibility. “There was so much love and respect in that room. I’ve never experienced this level of greatness, this level of respect.”
The luncheon isn’t at all about food and drink. It’s about a kinship, a fraternity of the very best at what they did as athletes.
So when the likes of Joe Greene, Dick Butkus and Willie Lanier told their stories to the three linebackers in this year’s class, Lewis, Urlacher and Brazile were spellbound.
“The stories and the brotherhood, I didn’t realize what I was getting into Obi Melifonwu Jersey ,” Urlacher said, shaking his head while smiling. “To hear the stories of what they’d gone through … .”
Of course, Kramer went through more than three decades of waiting to get in. The Packers guard became eligible in 1974 and wound up being voted into the hall as a senior candidate.
Brazile also went the senior route after becoming eligible in 1990. Beathard made it in the contributor’s category and has been retired from NFL team front offices since 2000.
Much of the attention at a news conference Friday was paid to the four youngest men in this class; Dawkins got in on his second try. Each of them was stoked by being part of the luncheon gathering.
And they spoke about the guys they idolized.
“Ronnie Lott is the first guy I wanted to be like, I looked up to that cat for much and modeled my game after him,” said Dawkins, who probably was a harder hitter than Lott, though few defensive backs approached Lott’s coverage skills. “He would challenge his teammates to do more, challenge himself to do more. He was a game changer in a game-changing league.”
Urlacher pointed to Butkus, considered by many the greatest middle linebacker in NFL history, and Mike Singletary, his Hall of Fame predecessors for the Bears. But because Urlacher played safety at New Mexico — and often outran every teammate, regardless of position — his hero, like Dawkins’, was a DB.
“Darren Woodson,” Urlacher said. “I was a safety in college and a huge Cowboys fan and he was the guy I wanted to be like when I grew up.”
Urlacher has an edge on Woodson Drew Kaser Jersey , who hasn’t yet made it into the hall.
Moss mentioned being thrilled to chat with former teammate Chris Doleman, who was inducted in 2012.
“These guys set the foundation and we respect these guys who paved the way,” Moss said. “It was great to be in there and hear a lot about it. You walk out of that room and say, ‘I am glad to be part of this fraternity.'”
At the gold jacket celebration Friday night, Owens made the printed program’s bio, and otherwise was a nonentity while the other class of 2018 members received their jackets.
While Owens is part of it because he was elected in February, his distancing himself from the proceedings here — and from his hall peers — didn’t draw much response from 2018 class members. That’s probably fitting, sort of like how an NFL coach won’t talk about players who are holding out, focusing instead on “the guys who are here.”
Nearly 140 Hall of Famers are expected in Canton for Saturday night’s inductions. Lewis wished he could have spoken in depth to all of those who attended the luncheon.
“Listening to some of those stories,” Lewis said, “you think, ‘Each one of you guys had to make your path straight enough so a person like me could follow.’ (It was) me and Dick Butkus face to face. Me and Mean Joe Greene locked. Willie Lanier and me just there in the corner talking.”
Hall of Famers all.
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