Daily Madden: Why Is Andrew Luck Giving Thanks For Getting Hit?
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - Colts quarterback Andrew Luck has been known to congratulate defensive linemen after they sack him.
"He's trying to be nice to them so that they won't keep getting him," John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. "I know a lot of defensive linemen (and) I know one thing -- that doesn't affect them. You can be nice to a guy and he's going to come after you. Or you can be a jerk to the guy, and he's going to come after you. Defensive linemen, believe me, there's no difference."
But Madden said there are times when defensive linemen will go easy on a quarterback.
"I feel sometimes that they let Peyton Manning down easily," Madden said, noting the serious injury that sidelined the Broncos quarterback for a season.
"When (the Raiders) used to play Joe Namath - he was one of the all-time greats, and he had bad knees - we would always hit him high... I told (my players) 'always go high,' and they all kind of agreed. Sometimes we went pretty hard high. We had a game here in Oakland where we broke his jaw. His helmet goes flying off and he breaks his jaw. But his knee was okay." (6:35)
Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 and Monday and Friday mornings at 9:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.