Late in the third quarter, with his Indianapolis Colts in the red zone and trailing by 10, quarterback Anthony Richardson tapped his helmet, indicating to his sideline that he needed to come out. The spectators initially feared that the young passer-by had suffered another injury. After the game, Richardson admitted the real reason: he was simply tired.

The sequence began two plays earlier when Richardson found Alec Pierce in the end zone, but the touchdown was aborted due to offensive pass interference. Then, on second-and-goal from the Houston Texans’ 23-yard line, Richardson escaped the pocket and evaded Houston’s pass rush before being sacked at the line of scrimmage. Richardson was attacked in the knees and fell awkwardly during the sack, leading to injury concerns.

At that moment, he tapped his helmet and walked to the sideline. Backup quarterback Joe Flacco – who started three games this season and led Indianapolis to two wins – came into the game and handed the play off to Jonathan Taylor for a 5-yard gain to set up a subsequent field goal.

“Tired, I’m not going to lie,” Richardson said when asked about the game after the game. “That was a lot of running I did and I didn’t think I would make it the next game. So I just told (Colts coach Shane Steichen) I needed a break right there.”

Anthony Richardson left the game for the Colts pic.twitter.com/yscTEQ3sEf

— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) October 27, 2024

On the next drive, Richardson was back on offense, but his postgame revelation about the substitution sparked ridicule from fans and former Colts punter Pat McAfee.

“Until I saw Anthony Richardson, I had never seen an NFL QB retire while still healthy,” McAfee said during the game on X. “The QB is your franchise. The message it sends is loud and influential.”

The Colts suffered their fourth loss of the season, 23-20. Richardson began the game by missing 13 of his first 15 attempts and ultimately finished the game with 175 yards, a touchdown and an interception on 10 of 32 passes.

In his five appearances this season, Richardson has passed for 783 yards with three touchdowns and six interceptions while completing 48.5 percent of his passes. In Flacco’s three appearances, the 39-year-old threw for 716 yards with seven touchdowns and one interception while completing 65.7 percent of his passes.

Required reading

(Photo: Jack Gorman/Getty Images)