‘Starting to settle in’: Luke Kuechly reflects on induction into Pro Football Hall of Fame

CHARLOTTE — Channel 9 is hearing from Panthers legend Luke Kuechly before his enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The former linebacker is the second-youngest Hall of Fame inductee ever.

Channel 9’s DaShawn Brown covered his career with the Panthers spoke with Kuechly on Tuesday about his achievement.

He told us he was at NFL honors, his rookie year, when he was in the room to watch as guys found out they were getting enshrined. And he thought back to how cool that was.

Now, he is that guy.

“When I was growing up, it was still the knock on the door in the hotel room way back in the day. Then I remember watching [Julius Peppers] when they came to knock on his door. Then you think about it. Pep was standing in my family room a couple weeks ago. It’s starting to settle in, like this is real,” Kuechly said on Tuesday.

There’s a funny story about that. He told us one of his neighbors actually called the cops the day the Pro Football Hall of Fame set up shop in his house to surprise him. They were concerned about weird paneled vans outside his house.

Turns out, that’s where they kept the TV cameras.

Needless to say, there is a lot more attention coming his way between now and his enshrinement later this year. After all, he was named all-pro seven times in just eight seasons.

But for the first time, we heard him explain, in more detail, what he was weighing when he made the call to retire.

“Mentally, I was in a position after the season where I was like everybody’s going to try to convince me otherwise, everyone is going to say go see this doctor, go see that doctor, but I knew in my heart it was the right decision, so yeah, it sucked right? I didn’t want to be done playing. I still had a lot of juice in the tank … but I knew that was the right decision so therefore I think it was a very easy difficult decision,” Kuechly said.

Kuechly will be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Aug. 8, 2026.

(VIDEO: Hall of Famer Julius Peppers surprises Luke Kuechly with Hall of Fame news)