What Really Happened to Luke Kuechly?

Luke Keeley is one of if not the greatest linebacker in recent history and then randomly one day he just retired but he seeking missile for the Panthers stifling offenses and sniffing out the football on each and every down he was a problem there's no doubt about that but where is he now and why did he retire so early this is what happened to Luke Keeley the beginning Luke Keeley was born in Cincinnati Ohio and grew up in nearby Evendale a comfortable Village in the Cincinnati metro area where he of course started playing football as a young kid he was a Cincinnati Bengals fan and lived just 25 minutes from Synergy field using the skills of his favorite Bengals Defenders he became a safety linebacker hybrid Defender by the time he entered high school and it shouldn't be a surprise to anybody who had seen him play to hear that he was a tackling machine but it was just on junior varsity for the first two years at St Xavier when he moved up to Varsity for his final two years of high school football Luke keigley total 277 tackles and led the bombers to an Ohio state championship in his senior season in an interview his coach Steve spec stated that he was a nice kid off the field but once he stepped foot on the grid iron he flipped a switch like nobody else Clark hen is what they called him because of how different he was on the field and off the field ultimately Luke was ranked a three star recruit coming out of high school with great physical traits standing at 6'3 and weighing nearly 230 lbs he considered the University of Virginia Duke and Stanford University but he decided to head north and suit up for Boston College beaston at Boston College due to the Eagles Star outside linebacker Mark Hy Jr missing the entire 2009 season due to a battle with cancer The Freshman Keeley will be thrust into the starting position immediately and he didn't disappoint dominating the ACC to finish with 158 total tackles which was second in the country due to his Stellar play the Cincinnati native was awarded the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year The Following season in 2010 his second season at Boston College Luke made the switch to middle linebacker and built on his success as a freshman this time nobody was going to beat him out for the top spot he led the country with 183 tackles he nearly broke the single season college football record for tackles in a season and was named a finalist for the dick bucket Award presented to the college football's best linebacker each year being named a unanimous American in the process and as if leading the nation in tacos once wasn't enough kley did it again as a junior in 2011 he finished with 191 tackles for the middle linebacker spot and set the record for tackles per game averaging a ridiculous 16 tackles which resulted in him taking home numerous Awards the Lombardi Bronco nersi and bucket awards were all his becoming the first player in college football history to win all three of these prestigious Awards in the same season the legendary dick buckus even surprised Keeley by personally presenting him with the honor at a Boston College banquet at the end of his Junior season he decided to forego his final year of Eligibility to declare for the NFL draft he finished his college career as the ACC and Boston College all-time leading tackler with 532 tackles the tackling machine was widely regarded as the number one linebacking Prospect by expert draft analysts across the country the information Miss Mill Kyper even had kley rated as a top 10 Talent on his draft board and following a dominant combine performance his draft stop Rose even more he was hoping to be drafted by his hometown Bengals who held the 17th overall pick and he even got an assist from Marcus Lewis the son of the Bengals head coach at the Time Marvin Lewis Keeley met the younger Lewis in high school as both played lacrosse and the latter kept an eye on kley as he rose to start him at Boston College ultimately he was snatched by the Carolina Panthers ninth overall way before the bengo selection and the former Cincinnati native would now be calling Charlotte his new home a panther on the prow Under second-year head coach Ron Rivera the Panthers were hoping to build something special quarterback Cam Newton was coming off a strong rookie year and they were looking to improve their defense which was one of the NFL's worse in 2011 Luke started off at outside linebacker for the Panthers just as he did at Boston College due to the veteran John B playing in the middle but in Achilles tear a few weeks into the season created a void in the middle of the defense and Luke Keeley F that void and some his impact was felt right away he had 164 tackles on the season which led to lead and for good measure he had eight pass deflections one sack two interceptions three fumble recoveries which propelled him to win the Defensive Rookie of the Year award some linebackers excel in Def defending the run some were adept at Rushing the quarterback and some do well dropping in the coverage but at 6'3 238 lbs kley was very strong in all those areas he had uncanny vision and strong defensive instincts which helped him disrupt the other team time and time again Carolina's defense has significantly improved in 2012 but in 2013 it would reach New Heights finishing second in both points and yards allowed with keeley's help in a late season win against the New Orleans Saints he had 24 tackles narly missing the NFL single game record for the most the Panthers finished 12-4 and made the playoffs for the first time in 5 years the Associated Press named Keeley the NFL's defensive player of the year making him the only player besides the legendary Lawrence Taylor to win Rookie of the Year and defensive player of the year in consecutive Seasons the following year he led the league in tackles for the second time after finishing with 53 tackles also being named a pro bowler for the second straight season and after the season the Panthers rewarded Luke who was now the captain of the defense with a 5-year $62 million extension to remain in Carolina the Panthers locked him up early after three dominant Seasons it made him the League's highest paid middle linebacker getting to the break now widely regarded as the best linebacker in the NFL Super Luke became hungry for more known as one of the the smartest linebackers to ever step foot on a football field he was always one step ahead because he studied harder than anyone else his hard work continued to pay off in 2015 when he helped lead the Panthers to the Super Bowl Carolina was cooking on offense with MVP cam nton taking the league by storm with Luke Keeley marshalling the defense the two units combined made for quite a spectacular team and the Panthers finished the regular season with the 15-1 record first in the NFL But ultimately fell short to pton Manning and the Denver Broncos and what would have been a heavily defensive game Luke Keeley made his debut Super Bowl appearance with 10 tackles and a sack but the Broncos defense led by Von Miller was just too much for Carolina's offense on the day the Panthers never made it back to the Super Bowl an injuries started to mount up on Cam Newton as he struggled to regain his MVP form the Super Bowl window was closing and closing fast and injuries were starting to add up on Luke to between 2015 and 2017 kley suffered a serious concussion three seasons in a row with the last of three keeping him out for over 6 weeks resulting in him missing the last six games of the 2017 season he was of course selected to the Pro Bowl anyway but noteworthy concussions became a factor in his career fast forward to 2019 and Luke Keeley has just been selected to his seven straight Pro Bowl following 144 tackle season he has surpassed 1,000 career tackle in the NFL that year and at the age of 28 was still dominating the game year after year and then he just retired and shortly after the Panthers has hired former Baylor head coach Matt rule to take over the franchise Luke Keeley sat down in front of a camera in the linebacker room he had spent N9 years working in and confirmed his retirement in his video he thanked his coaches including R Rivera who had been the Panthers coach for the entirety of his career Rivera special ized at linebackers and Keeley has spoken fondly of his relationship with his coach Rivera coached the Panthers from 2011 until his firing in December of 2019 due to new ownership taking over and wanting to put their stamp on their franchise during the recording of his video he pauses for a moment almost as if he's reflecting on his decision he recalls how he loved the game of football and he has been playing it since a little kid he then goes on to say there's only one way to play this game and since he was a little kid that's to play fast and physical and at this point I don't know if I'm able to do that anymore and that's the part that's the most difficult fighting the hold back tears it was obvious that Keeley didn't want to give up the game speculation suggested that numerous serious concussions played a role in his decision and doctors may have suggested that he can't continue to play the way that he desired anymore without considering the long-term Health implications having watched Luke kley for many years the way he played is exactly as he described hard fast and physical he was like a missile in the middle of the field and he hit so hard you can feel it through your TV screen on Sundays outside of the concussions kley had an impressive lack of injuries during his tenure as a pro he never missed a game for anything other than a head injury despite tearing his labor in 2015 during the panther Super Bowl run kley suffered the Labor injury in the final game of the regular season he played through it all the way to the Super Bowl before having off season surgery it was only ever head injuries that kept him off the field concussions cut his career short by nearly a decade and stole many memories from Panthers fans and fans of the sport in general he retired with a list of accolades that looks like it belongs to someone who played for 20 years Keeley reached the top of the mountain at every level of the game and came so close to winning the Super Bowl ring after retiring he took up a position as a pro Scout with the Panthers having mentioned during his retirement speech that he was still loved to be around the game but he has since resigned from that position to pursue other passions in his life such as fishing and [Music] hunting

Channel: Just Football

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Keywords: Just Football, College Football, NFL Highlights, NFL Football, Football Highlights, luke kuechly, nfl retirement, luke kuechly retirement, carolina panthers, panthers, nfl, nfl history, luke kuechly highlights, carolina panthers news, nfl playoffs, nfl playoffs 2024, boston college football, boston college, nfl news, panthers football, football, luke kuechly panthers, luke kuechly injury, panthers nfl, luke kuechly retires, nfl news today, linebacker, linebacker history

Id: W7AJVAo1nPk

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 22 2024