Adam Schefter shocked millions of NFL fans when he reported the news of Andrew Luck's retirement plans Saturday night. Schefter, during a recent appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, said that he's shocked that the news didn't come out earlier.

Schefter revealed during the interview that people within the Colts' organization knew of Luck's plans to retire as early as last week. He said that some players knew of Luck's plans well before Indianapolis took the field for Saturday's game.

"What's shocking to me is that the information didn't come out sooner," Schefter said. "Honestly, I feel bad that it took as long as it did to get the information out. And there were people in the Colts' organization that knew during the week. There were players that were told Thursday. There were players that were told Friday. There were players who knew. The owner knew. The GM knew. The head coach knew. Teammates knew."

Schefter said that the Colts, for reasons unknown to him, decided to push back making Luck's retirement public knowledge until Sunday afternoon. By Saturday night, Schefter -- who said that he was at dinner celebrating his mother-in-law's 75th birthday -- started receiving information about Luck's plans to retire.

"The Colts could have announced it Thursday. They considered announcing it Friday. They were going to have a press conference on Friday. For reasons I'm not familiar with, they decided to make it Sunday at 3 p.m. I don't know why they did that. They had a decision. They made their choice."

Schefter admitted that he was as surprised as anyone when he started receiving messages about Luck's retirement plans. And while he said that he immediately received about 30 text messages from friends and colleagues questioning the validity of his report, one specific person that reached out to him actually caused him to doubt his own report.

"One of the first texts I received was from Matthew Hasselbeck (an ESPN analyst and Luck's former teammate with the Colts)," Schefter said, "and he said to me, 'Are you sure?' And I texted back 'Yes.' And he said 'I don't know about that … I spoke to Andrew yesterday and today and he never mentioned anything to me.' And so when Andrew Luck's friend, and teammate and backup quarterback texted me asking me if I was right, I have to say it made me a little bit uneasy."

Schefter, and the rest of the football world would shortly find out -- from Luck himself -- that his report was indeed accurate. With the news of his impending retirement all over social media, Luck decided to move up his previously planned Sunday press conference to Saturday night, following the Colts' preseason game against the Chicago Bears.

Luck, who admitted that he was not properly dressed for the occasion (his parents, who had planned to be in attendance Sunday for the previously planned press conference, weren't on hand for Luck's actual retirement speech), confessed that the four-year cycle of "injury, pain, recovery, injury" had forced his decision to walk away from the game after six active seasons.

Luck received boos from some Colts fans who found out about the news during Saturday's preseason game, Schefter, meanwhile, has also received flack for not allowing Luck to handle his retirement on his own terms. And while he doesn't regret his decision to honor the duties of his job while reporting the news of Luck's retirement, he added that he took no joy is breaking what may be the biggest story of his career to this point.

"It's a sad story, it's a shocking story," he said. "You've got a player who's about to turn 30-years-old in the prime of his career, who's great for the Colts, who's great for the Indianapolis, who's great for the National Football League, walk away prematurely because he was so worn down by everything that he had been through the previous year.

"From that point, there's zero joy taken in seeing a great player leave the game."