Andrew Luck Felt ‘Gut Punch’ When Colts Parted With Pep Hamilton

The NFL is a business, but that didn’t stop some Indianapolis Colts players on Wednesday from feeling strong emotions from the departure of former offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton.

Of course, perhaps no player may have felt stronger emotions more than star quarterback Andrew Luck, who’s had a relationship with Hamilton dating all the way back to their time together at Stanford University over 5 years ago.

Luck said he felt a “gut punch” upon hearing the news of Hamilton’s dismissal:

"“Yeah, a lot, a lot of emotions,” said Luck. “None of them good.” “It does feel like a gut punch,” added Luck. “But again, we have to move on and we have. We trust Coach Pagano’s plan. We trust his vision. This locker room is, we’re all on the same page and moving forward, and that’s what we need to do to go out and win.”"

He wasn’t the only quarterback to speak on the sudden change at offensive coordinator, as backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck shared a similar sentiment upon hearing the news:

"“I think early in the day, we were all feeling really bad,” said Hasselbeck Wednesday. “Just feeling bad for Pep,” added Hasselbeck. “Kind of like we let him down, but the way things were communicated to us, it was healing a little bit. Like hey, ‘Here’s what we got to do’, ‘Here’s how we fix this’, and it was a little bit of a confidence builder today.”"

Now, the offense will go forward with new offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski calling the shots, who’s had prior professional experience in such a role with the Carolina Panthers–having coached Cam Newton back in 2011-12.

While change may have been sorely need offensively, Hamilton was still a stand-up individual and well-liked by Colts players. It’s just a shame things didn’t quite work out the way that was originally planned, but that’s just how the game of football goes sometimes: