Some Eagles weren’t surprised Andrew Luck retired | Marcus Hayes

Not everyone with the Eagles was shocked when Andrew Luck abruptly retired Saturday night.

“I’m getting less and less surprised by guys retiring earlier. Especially guys who have been dealing with the kinds of injuries he has," safety Malcom Jenkins, 31, said of the former Colts quarterback. “I watched his press conference. [He spoke of] The process of coming back from the injuries taking some of the fun out of the game.”

“I don’t think that’s a new concept,” said center Jason Kelce, who will be 32 in November. “This is something every football player deals with.”

“I commend him. The older you get the more you understand when a guy makes a decision like this,” said Brandon Brooks. He turned 30 last week.

All three understand the challenge of playing in chronic pain. They saw Patrick Willis and Calvin Johnson cut short their elite careers, and they’ve seen lesser players walk away feeling much better but with far less in their bank accounts.

Kelce tore an ACL in 2012, had sports hernia surgery during the 2014 season, and last year played through a torn knee ligament, torn elbow tissue and a broken foot -- all while making All-Pro at center for the second time. Luck’s litany of injuries, capped by a lingering calf issue, convinced him the “cycle of injury pain” was no longer worth the riches and fame. Luck earned more than $97 million but forfeited $63 million more. It’s not always about the Benjamins, baby.

“Anybody who plays football at this level can understand” why Luck left, Kelce said. “Especially if you’ve been playing a long time and you’ve been through the wringer.”

>>READ MORE: Eagles center Jason Kelce decides to return even though the pain will as well | Bob Ford

Jenkins has been mostly injury-free in his 10 seasons, remarkable for a three-time Pro Bowl safety, but Brooks ruptured an Achilles tendon in the playoff loss at New Orleans in January. He rehabbed ferociously in hopes of returning to his right guard spot by the opener Sept. 8. Brooks also suffers from an anxiety condition and so is particularly attuned to mental-health issues in the NFL. Luck’s admission that perpetual pain and rehab had exhausted him resonated with Brooks.

“Trying to battle through rehab while trying to play, and then trying to be the player you want to be -- the player everybody [expects] you to be -- it’s frustrating,” said Brooks.

Like Luck, Brooks dreads the daily drudgery of continual maintenance while playing -- and practicing -- through injuries:

“The second you get off the field, you come in here for extra work. Psychologically, it wears on you. My heart goes out to the guy.”

Most players not only support Luck’s decision, they understand why players quit before they reach Luck’s level of wealth or deterioration. Kelce mentioned John Moffitt, an anonymous guard who, at 27, walked away from the Broncos in the middle of the 2013 season, which was his third; he’d made less than $2 million (he launched a failed comeback bid in 2015 with the Eagles). After a sparkling 2014 rookie season, 49ers linebacker Chris Borland fled the game at the age of 23 because he was worried about the cumulative effect of head injuries. Borland had suffered two concussions. He’d made $574,000.

The more relevant comparable players -- players who, like Luck, almost assuredly were on track for the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- are Johnson, the Lions’ elite receiver known as “Megatron,” and Willis, the linebacker Borland replaced in 2014 when Willis suffered a toe injury.

Johnson, the second overall pick of the 2007 draft, quit after the 2015 season, having battled chronic finger, knee and ankle injuries. He was 30, had made $113 million in nine seasons, had gone to six Pro Bowls and was a three-time All-Pro.

Willis might have been even better.

Willis, the 11th player picked in 2007, went to the Pro Bowl in each of his first seven seasons and was an All-Pro five times. But after toe surgery limited him to six games in 2014 -- the injury that gave Borland his playing time as a rookie -- Willis, who had earned $42.5 million, never played again. Like Luck, he was finished at 29.

When Lions running back Barry Sanders retired on the eve of the 1999 preseason, he forfeited about $23 million in salary and bonuses. He was 30, and he’d made almost $34 million, and, like Luck and Williams and Willis, he’d earned every penny. So has Kelce.

“Last year was a grind, for sure,” he said. He then added, ominously: “It’s going to continue. You try to get used to it."

You never get used to it.

For every water-cooler warrior who criticizes early NFL retirees, consider that NFL players who take copious amounts of anti-inflammatories to battle pain must undergo routine blood tests to monitor their liver enzymes and kidney function to make sure their organs are functioning properly. Kelce said he’d only taken painkillers in 2014, to numb the agony of the sports hernia. But prescription opioid abuse has been a closeted epidemic in the NFL for years.

Most of these players are in their 20s.

This is no way for young men to live.

Kelce said his reconstructed knee has been achy for the past two seasons. He has considered retirement after each of the last three seasons, including after 2018, but he’d made only $27 million before this year. He’s in line to make $8.5 million in 2019 under the terms of his $24.5 million contract extension through 2021. The Eagles are among the favorites to win the Super Bowl this year. Maybe $35 million will be enough for him.

“I love going out there and playing ball. I love coming to work every single day," Kelce said. "I’m very much looking forward to playing another year.”

Don’t be surprised if it’s his last.