The fact that Oliver Luck, the father of Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck. played pro football has created plenty of speculation that Oliver will be intimately involved in Andrew’s decision-making processes when it comes to playing football at the next level.
Not so, Oliver Luck said on Monday night’s Bruce Smith Show with Johnny D in Virginia Beach. Oliver said he’ll be “not very involved” at all, explaining that he has an athletics department to run at West Virginia University.
Oliver Luck said that Andrew will make all decisions on issues such as the selection of an agent, the choice of a marketing representative, and pre-draft planning. “I’ll give him some advice but I’ll try to take a subdued role in all of it,” Oliver Luck said.
Curiously but not surprisingly, Oliver Luck didn’t mention that one of the decisions will be whether to stay at Stanford for another year.
For 2011, Andrew Luck decided to remain in school. As Peter King pointed out during Football Night in America on Sunday, Oliver Luck last year crafted a list of questions for the NFL regarding the process, including the question of whether it would be proper for Andrew Luck to advise the team that holds the first pick in the draft that Andrew Luck doesn’t want to be employed by that specific organization.
Eli Manning successfully implemented that strategy in 2004, with his father, Archie, taking the public arrows. Given that Archie Manning and Oliver Luck were teammates for one-plus seasons in Houston nearly 30 years ago, Oliver undoubtedly will at some point be asking Archie for information and/or advice regarding the experience.
If Oliver hasn’t already.