Andrew Luck retired suddenly on Saturday night, resulting in a FIRESTORM of social media reaction. Some of the takes were intense, like a flamethrower attached to a cruise missile and fired into our Twitter feeds.

Among the most maligned was a Doug Gottlieb tweet that proclaimed the following:

Retiring cause rehabbing is “too hard” is the most millennial thing ever #AndrewLuck

Hoo boy! That certainly is a take. Gottlieb, who is now with FS1, took a lot of shit for that line, including this from Troy Aikman, who apparently is now my favorite Dallas Cowboy:

Strong response from Troy.

A lot of people, of course, reminded Gottlieb of the time he stole his teammates’ credit cards in college, resulting in a transfer out of Notre Dame (he did, to his credit, apologize for that).

Even Britt McHenry, the former ESPN host and current Fox News personality – who seems to be universally reviled on Twitter – got in on the action:

Right, so look, I don’t fault Andrew Luck for retiring, not one bit. I don’t know what’s going through the guy’s head or the type of pain he’s been dealing with for the last few years, nor would I presume to judge him for doing what he thinks is best for himself and his family. He’s suffered a laundry list of injuries and I think most athletes, especially football players, come to some point where they think to themselves, ‘hey, is this really worth it?‘

But I do understand the other side of it. I understand why people are being critical, and it’s not because of your fucking fantasy football team. It’s because he made the decision two weeks before the start of the season, which puts the Colts front office and coaching staff and 52 teammates in a tough position. It was the timing of the announcement that people had some trouble with, since the lack of notification didn’t give the Colts the required time to maybe reformulate an offseason plan or project their future salary cap and blah blah. That’s where the negative responses are coming from.

I think longtime NFL QB Steve Beuerlein actually did a nice job of articulating that in a series of tweets, explaining that the Colts invested 5 to 10 years in Luck while the quarterback himself spent much less time pondering the retirement decision. Beuerline suggested Luck go on injured reserve, attempt a mid-season come back, and then call it a career at the end of the year if he still didn’t feel right. That would have been a better way to do right by his teammates and the organization, according to the 17-year veteran.

Either way, it’s Luck’s decision, and he can do whatever we wants to do. I wouldn’t sit here and poo-poo that choice or presume to have the arrogance to tell the dude how to proceed with his body and his life, especially as somebody who never has and never will take an NFL snap.

I also think the 2012 draft class will make for an excellent documentary some day. ‘What could have been,’ featuring Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Trent Richardson, Matt Kalil, and Mo Claiborne, among others.