Rodgers does come across as an idiot. He masks it to some extent by engaging in a word-salad composed of fancy words.
The issue with Luck is that he decided 2 weeks before the regular season after thinking about it for 10 days. A much better approach would be to go on IR, then retire if you don't feel better. https://www.foxnews.com/sports/andrew-luck-retirement-decision-under-fire Steve Berlin has a good take on it, and this approach.
Luck came across as, "well, this hurts, I don't really care about football, the team, or anything else." Regardless of whether he intended it, that was the impression he gave. For someone who is allegedly a genius, he totally botched his retirement by not anticipating the fan reaction.