Keyshawn Johnson: Andrew Luck and Rob Gronkowski Will Be Back in the NFL

Rob Gronkowski and Andrew Luck have both spoken at length about the hellish aspects of playing in the NFL and why they made the difficult decision to step away from the game. But we are nothing if not a country that walks around with earplugs in 24-7 so it is time, as it’s always time, to talk about why they’ll take their mountain of good reason, throw it in the trash, and sign up for more physical and emotional pain.

Here’s Keyshawn Johnson, a special guest on this morning’s Get Up, explaining why he believes both Luck and Gronkowski will be back.

Johnson believes peer pressure will play a major role because it’s tough to say no when someone calls you on the phone and asks you to do something. Plus, Gronkowski has nothing better to do so he may as well go out there and get all banged-up again.

Johnson has forgotten more about football than I’ll ever know, but I am fading this future so hard that it’s gone 50 yards left of the green. Everyone keeps pointing to the Brett Favre example because he famously wavered in and out of play like Ross Perot toying with a presidential bid.

But Luck is not like Favre in personality at all. Gronkowski is more likely to return as he’s a wild-card but the thing I keep going back to is this: getting fully healthy and feeling good for the first time in forever is only going to hammer home how smart the choice to walk away was in the first place. If Luck and Gronk are committed enough to make the tough decision now, when still battling lingering pain, think of how strong they’ll be in the future when they wake up feeling like a million bucks to enjoy their millions of bucks.