13. Andrew Luck
Andrew Luck has a half-dozen cities drooling over him, cities that want him so badly that they’d happily root for their favorite football team to lose. The Stanford quarterback — whose team was undefeated and a national championship contender before a loss to Oregon last week — is the consensus No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL draft. Millions of dollars and a wild reception await him, whether in Indianapolis, Miami, St. Louis or Minneapolis. But first, he’s got a degree to finish — in architectural design, inspired by teenage trips to Europe with his family.
The horrific child sex abuse scandal at once-idealized Penn State makes it easier than ever to be cynical about college sports and suspicious of amateurism. But Luck seems chiseled from a classical hero’s mold, and it’s not just that statue-ready tousled hair. $50 million guaranteed? Who needs it. This is a guy who doesn’t look for the easy A, but instead calls his most satisfying collegiate experience busting himself to get a B in Engineering 14, a course that combined architectural, civil, mechanical, aerospace and biomedical engineering topics.
Luck could have an entourage escorting him everywhere; instead he’s so unpretentious and not self-conscious that he cycles across the Stanford campus on a mountain bike with a seat covered with plastic bags from the bookstore. It’s a practical engineering solution to fight morning dew and wet pants. Of course, only someone who looks so good that he’s highly rated on “hot or not” sites for both gay men and straight women, doesn’t have to worry about what he looks like. Safe to say all eyes will be lingering on him for awhile.
