Suck for Luck Isn’t a Good Idea

Unlike in the NBA, the highest draft pick always goes to the worst team in the league from the previous season in football, and every year the next big thing is promised in the draft. He’s the next superstar. Sometimes it does work out in the case of Peyton Manning, John Elway, Troy Aikman and Michael Vick. But for everyone who worked, there are many that haven’t, such as JaMarcus Russell, Ryan Leaf, Tim Couch, David Carr and Joey Harrington.

This next year, the No. 1 pick is expected to be Andrew Luck out of Stanford, and teams are already fighting, or should I say losing to win the rights to choose him as the No. 1 pick. So, is there a chance that Luck could be the next Tim Couch or Ryan Leaf? All the experts say it isn’t likely.

“Suck for Luck,” that catchphrase has become a part of the daily NFL dialogue as people speculate which team will lose the most this season, thus winning the chance to pick the exceptionally hyped Stanford quarterback.

The idea to lose to win is not new. Teams and their fans have thrown this idea around every year that they start out slow. Maybe if we get Andrew Luck or Peyton Manning, we will win the Super Bowl next year. One player will make the whole team unstoppable. Does that ever work? Lebron James was the No. 1 pick in the NBA by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yes, he is and was amazing, but did they win a championship? Never! One player cannot make a team. A team that plays as such can win a championship.

The definition of a team to me is the 2007 New England Patriots. While, yes, they did have superstars like Randy Moss, Tom Brady and Assante Samuel, the entire team worked as a team for the one goal of winning each and every week. That was also now superstar Wes Welker’s first season with the Pats. The Pats went 16-0 during the regular season and ended up winning every game but the super bowl.

However, many fans and team executives believe that going backwards is occasionally the best way forward.

This was once known in the world of professional sports by the term “rebuilding,” but teams today disagree with this kind portrayal because losing, even for a greater good, doesn’t make money.

So no team in the NFL can acknowledge they are in the race for Luck, whom scouts refer to as the best quarterback prospect since Peyton Manning or John Elway, depending on their age.

“I’ll tell you this: I think Andrew Luck is the best football player in the draft, without a doubt,” Elway told Gary Miller and Vic Lombardi on their radio show last winter, before he took over the Broncos’ front office and while it still looked like Luck would enter the 2011 draft. “To me, barring injury, he’s going to be very successful in the NFL.” So does that mean that Elway wants Luck and has already given up on the Tebow era that has taken the nation by storm? Who knows?

Whether or not the “Suck for Luck” campaign has reached the point of fans rooting for their team to lose, Luck won’t be one of them.

“I don’t root for anyone to lose,” Luck recently said when asked about teams losing on purpose to get his draft rights, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Most would guess if he were rooting for any team to lose, it would likely be the Indianapolis Colts. There, Luck can learn from Peyton Manning, one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history.

May the worst team lose or win, depending upon how you look at it.


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