Panthers legend Luke Kuechly opens up about Cam, coaching and why he retired at age 28
L-u-u-u-u-u-k-e!
That single, drawn-out syllable is all any Carolina Panthers fan needs to evoke a mental image of Luke Kuechly, the linebacker who did his job so well and was so well-loved by fans that you still see No. 59 jerseys all over Bank of America Stadium at each home game.
Drafted No. 9 overall out of Boston College by the Panthers in 2012, Kuechly had a remarkable eight-year NFL career. He was the Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2012, the AP’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2013 and one of the keys to the Panthers’ run to the Super Bowl in 2015. In his first year of eligibility, he’s currently a semifinalist for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
After retiring early at the age of 28 in January 2020, Kuechly has now become a staple of the Panthers’ radio broadcast team. Still only 33 years old, he lives in Charlotte and looks like he’d be good for about 10 tackles per game.
Kuechly never has done a lot of longform interviews, but he sat down with us in early December at Bank of America Stadium for the Year Three season finale of “Sports Legends of the Carolinas.”
Among the topics: Cam Newton, Bryce Young, Kuechly’s love for bowhunting and why he retired early. The interview, edited for brevity and clarity, appears below. And if you can’t get enough of Kuechly, a much fuller version appears on the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” podcast.
Scott Fowler: How did you first get started playing football?
Luke Kuechly: My first year playing football was in fourth grade with the St. Xavier Golden Bears. ... I was the backup fullback and a linebacker. Kevin Chase was our starting fullback, and I would come in and spell Kevin when he needed a break. ... It was awesome.
SF: What did you love about it?
LK: I loved the team aspect of it. I loved the physicality aspect. I think I loved it because I grew up watching football and I always wanted to be like the guys that you grew up watching. I loved Notre Dame as a kid, and I would always watch those games on Saturdays. And then obviously the (Cincinnati) Bengals on Sundays.
SF: Tell me about your family.
LK: I have two brothers. I have an older brother, who is 18 months older than me. That’s John. He was in the grade ahead of me, so every other year, John and I played on the same team. ... We’d always play on the same basketball team. Played lacrosse. Played football. And then Henry is seven years younger than I am. He was a basketball player and got drug to all kinds of games.
My parents both grew up in Cincinnati — Tom and Eileen. They’re great. They were so supportive of really everything that we did… They came to pretty much all of my Boston College games.
Down here at Carolina, they came to pretty much every home game. They sat in Section 346. My mom loved sitting there because she could see us run out of the tunnel. And they were right behind the bench. So if I ever needed to get a little tape job on the training table or something, that was in direct line with their seats. ... So I’d need to give her a thumbs-up.
SF: Were they athletes?
LK: My dad played soccer in college and was super competitive. My mom was a really good basketball player in high school.
‘Just a little skinny kid’
SF: You went to a Catholic high school. Would Notre Dame have been your dream college?
LK: Yeah. When I was growing up, my grandparents actually met on a trip to South Bend for a Notre Dame game. My grandpa was a huge Notre Dame fan. ... I had (Notre Dame football) posters in my bedroom. And then I was just a little skinny kid in high school and I didn’t grow until late. I would have loved to have gone to Notre Dame and it just didn’t work out. I ended up at Boston College and I loved my time there.
SF: You were a three-star recruit. Who were your finalists?
LK: Stanford, Duke, Virginia and then Boston College. My dad gave me really good advice. He said: “Go somewhere that you can’t get into without football.” And I probably wouldn’t have gotten into any of those schools, to tell you the truth.
SF: The Panthers drafted you in 2012 and the team went 7-9. But in your second year, the Panthers started a streak where they made the playoffs four out of five seasons. When do you think it started to turn around?
LK: We played really well at the end of 2012 (winning the final four games and saving coach Ron Rivera’s job). When 2013 came around. ... We started 1-3 and I remember we went up to Minnesota and it was like, “All right, we better start winning some football games or else they could make a (coaching) change quickly.”
And I remember (former Panthers offensive tackle) Jordan Gross gave this pregame speech.
Usually pregame speeches — you’ve heard one, you’ve heard them all. ... But the more he talked, the more everybody got super engaged. And we went out and beat them and then we won that one and a bunch in a row. That’s where we started to take off.
Dinner with Cam and MJ
SF: Before you even played a game here, didn’t you somehow end up at a dinner with both Cam Newton and Michael Jordan?
LK: Yeah. I knew Cam a little and the day after I got drafted, I was walking through the locker room and Cam was there. He said: “Hey, I’ll give you a call later and we’ll go get something to eat. ...” So I was staying at the Westin and waiting out front. And a red Ferrari pulls up and stops.
It’s dark out. I’m the only person out there. I look in the front and it’s kind of tinted, but you can tell there’s a big presence in there. A big body.
So I try to open the door, because I think it’s Cam. And it’s not opening. ... And then the lock clicks and I open the door and look in. And it’s Michael Jordan (laughs).
So I said, “Hey, I’m Luke.” He said, “I’m Michael. ... Are you waiting for Cam? Because he’s pulling in right behind us.” So he and Cam knew each other because they lived in the same building or something. I jumped in the car with Cam and we ended up at Selwyn Pub.
I didn’t really say a whole lot at dinner. I love the draft, so I just sat there in the corner and watched the rest of the draft on TV.
SF: Tell me a little more about your relationship with Cam, since so much about those teams in the 2010s revolved around the two of you.
LK: I loved playing with Cam. I think all the guys that played with him would say the same thing. He was competitive. He never threw guys under the bus. He never got mad at guys. And his toughness, to me, was one thing that you never questioned with him.
He was always having fun. That smile he had. ... Great energy. Fun to be around. ... On Thursdays during the season, he’d always order tons of food and they’d have it in the quarterback room. We’d have Thursday tacos a lot. ... It’s all those stupid things that seem trivial that are the things you really miss.
An all-star coaching staff
SF: You and Greg Olsen and his family have always been close. And now you are part of his all-star middle school coaching staff in Charlotte.
LK: Greg is a phenomenal football player, great teammate, great leader — just a great person. ... He helped me learn how to be a football player.
He and Kara have three kids. Tate’s the oldest and plays football, so we started coaching his teams two years ago, in Pop Warner… Greg’s dad (Chris Olsen, who was a legendary high school coach in New Jersey) helps. ... Now we coach middle school at Charlotte Christian.
Greg is the head coach. His dad is the offensive coordinator. And me and Stew (former Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart) and Todd Blackledge (who won a national title as Penn State’s quarterback in the 1980s) all help out. ... Greg and I coach defense together. It’s great.
I just talk to the kids, really. They all want to be good and do the right thing. .... That’s how I liked it as a player. If I made a mistake, just talk to me. ... I don’t need to get yelled at.
SF: I’ve always thought you’d be a great NFL head coach. Is that something that appeals to you?
LK: I love the game of football. I love being on the sideline pregame. I love the guys.
I’m not sure if I’m ready for the time associated with (the job). I give those guys a lot of credit. I give their families a lot of credit. I’m just not quite at that point in my life where I’m ready to dive back into that level.
SF: What keeps you busy now?
LK: The radio is super fun. I love Jake (Delhomme, the other Panthers radio analyst). I love Anish (Shroff, the Panthers’ play-by-play guy). David Langton, our producer, is the nicest person in the world. I travel on the team plane, get to be on the sideline and get to be a homer for the Panthers. It’s the closest thing I can get to playing. And I love the team, and the organization.
SF: What do you miss most about playing?
LK: The locker room and the traveling — that stuff. I don’t think that you can replicate that. I love the schedule of the season: busy during the season and in the offseason, all I have to do is wake up and work out. That’s my job. And I miss competing. I miss seeing each week who’s better.
Retirement: an easy/difficult decision
SF: Your surprise retirement and your speech, given nearly five years ago in front of a camera, was sad to a lot of people. And you were obviously emotional when you were giving it.
LK: Five years ago (Shakes his head).
SF: You’ve been out of the game for a while.
LK: Yeah, it stinks.
SF: You said at the time you really wanted to keep playing, but you knew it wasn’t the right decision. Why was that?
LK: I was getting banged up. I had some stuff pop up that just kept rearing its head. ... I wasn’t capable of playing how I wanted to… In my mind, mentally, I was like: “Man, I can’t do it anymore.”
And I thought that if I wasn’t 100%, I wasn’t doing my job how people expected me to do it. And I was like, “This isn’t fair. It’s not fair for the guys on the team. It’s not fair to the organization. It’s not fair to the fans. And it’s not fair to me, to expect to be playing at a level that I know I can’t play at. It was a very difficult decision.
But I think once I knew, I knew. So yeah, it’s a bummer. I love football. It brings me so much joy. It’s the best job in the world. ... I could (have still played at) like 75-80%, but I wasn’t capable of playing how I wanted to. It was an easy/difficult decision, if that makes sense.
SF: You had several concussions while playing. How much of what you’re talking about was concussion-related?
LK: I think some of it was. I had some other (injury) stuff that was bugging me, too. It was kind of everything.
SF: But Luke Kuechly at 75 or 80%? That would still be good enough to be playing today. You’re only 33, even now.
LK: I mean, I loved it. And I thought for the first couple years, I was like: “I can still play.”
SF: Did you ever think about doing a Gronk — an “I’m retired, wait, no, I’m not retired”?
LK: No. I think the first couple years you’re like thinking you can still play. And then I went out on the field (Dec. 1) and saw Tristan Wirfs (Tampa Bay’s 320-pound offensive tackle) and I was like: “Nah, I’m probably all right. I’m good.”
SF: You were listed at 238 pounds. Do you weigh the same now as when you played?
LK: I’m probably down 15 pounds, which is good. I had to keep weight on (as a player). Got to lift more. Got to eat more. And now it’s nice to not have to worry about that as much.
SF: Aren’t you an outdoorsman?
LK: Yeah, I love being outside. I grew up hunting and fishing. I love to bowhunt. That’s one of my favorite things.
SF: Where do you do that?
LK: You can do it around here, or you can go to the Midwest. Illinois. Kansas. Texas is a great place. Montana. New Mexico.
And the Western stuff — you have to train for it. If you want to be at peak performance, you gotta be able to walk and carry a backpack and walk up and down these mountains. You have to be able to shoot. You gotta be able to make an ethical shot. You have to be able to calm your heart rate down when you climb up a hill and you’re excited and you see something.
The bow, for me, is very relaxing. It’s calming. It’s outside. If you make a bad shot, it’s on you. It’s fun to make the corrections.
Is Bryce Young a franchise QB?
SF: You’ve called a lot of games with Bryce Young as the quarterback now. Does he have what it takes to be an NFL franchise quarterback?
LK: Yeah. One of the best things that I think Bryce has going for him right now is he’s been very resilient since he’s been here. Last year he had multiple coordinators and Frank Reich gets fired midseason, and he’s getting hit a ton, and we’re kind of in flux on the offensive side of the ball.
There was a lot that got thrown at him, and all he kept doing last year is kept getting back up. He got sacked 62 times, and all he ever did was run off the field and stand in front of the team and the media and talk about, “I’m gonna get better.” And then this year, he obviously struggled to start the season, and they sit him down. He wasn’t hurt.
Now he has another opportunity, and when you watch him play, he looks like he’s having so much fun. And half the battle with football is that when it’s not fun, it’s terrible, and it’s really hard.
When things are fun and you’re having fun, you play better.
The “Sports Legends” series has won multiple national awards and includes 1-on-1 interviews with guests like Richard Petty, Steph Curry, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Jake Delhomme, Jay Bilas, Alonzo Mourning and Dawn Staley. Those conversations are also available on the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” podcast, where a fuller version of this interview with Luke Kuechly can also be found.
The “Sports Legends” coffee-table book, featuring interviews from the first two seasons, is now available at SportsLegendsBook.com and at local bookstores.
This story was originally published December 17, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Panthers legend Luke Kuechly opens up about Cam, coaching and why he retired at age 28."
