NFL Players Are Evolving. Fans Aren’t Keeping Up.

When Andrew Luck walked off the football field for the final time as a player, it was to the sound of boos from fans, because news of his shocking retirement had surfaced on social media. Their reaction wasn’t a surprise as much as it was evidence of an unpleasant reality.

Many fans, it seems, are struggling to accept that the players who entertain them on NFL Sundays are evolving, and that even the type of idealized athlete who drew many fans to football—the hard-nosed, rugged guy who repeatedly and eagerly sacrificed his body, enduring unimaginable pain for the sake of the game—has been pushed to the outer limits of what any human body can tolerate. The fame, wealth, and adulation