Andrew Luck makes rare national TV appearence — as 'Capt. Andrew Luck'

Updated Sep 22, 2023 1:18 pm ET

Former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck has largely stayed out of the limelight since his stunning retirement from the NFL in 2019 at the age of 29. So it was noteworthy enough when he popped up to play some trivia on Amazon's "Thursday Night Football" postgame show after the San Francisco 49ers defeated the New York Giants in Santa Clara, near Luck's Northern California home.

But not only did Luck join his former Stanford teammate (and new "Undisputed" co-host) Richard Sherman live on set, he did so wearing a full, authentic Civil War-era Union army uniform in an obvious reference to the famed "Capt. Andrew Luck" parody account on X (formerly Twitter).

"I've been great. The war is over," Luck said as Sherman erupted with laughter. "We have greener pastures in California. Life is good."

The "Capt. Andrew Luck" account went viral in the late 2010s with a profile picture of Luck altered to make it look like an army portrait from the late 19th century. Its humorous posts were styled as battlefield letters sent home to "Mother." During Luck's playing career, the "battles" referenced would often correspond to the opponent and outcome of that week's Colts game.

When Luck retired in August 2019, the account posted a letter to "Mother" saying he was "coming home to take care of you and the farm." The anonymous author even penned a "farewell" letter in Sports Illustrated soon after. 

Since then, the account has only tweeted sporadically, referencing a cabin "far within the Appalachians" where the good captain apparently now lives. (The real Luck is currently coaching high school football in his college town of Palo Alto, Calif.)

While Luck had previously acknowledged the parody account, he had never gone to such great lengths to publicly pay homage to it — until Thursday night.

[Do you want more great stories delivered right to you? Here's how you can create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow your favorite leagues, teams and players and receive a personalized newsletter in your inbox daily.]