Luke Kuechly was away so long that his Ohio story isn’t overly well known by Ohioans.
What better time to know it better, now that he is part of Canton’s Class of 2026?
Kuechly (pronounced KEEK-lee) played the biggest game of his young life in 2007, in Canton, at the stadium next to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
At the time, it was Fawcett Stadium, since demolished and replaced in the same coordinates by Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. In August, Kuechly will be enshrined on those grounds with Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Roger Craig and Adam Vinatieri.
While in Canton in April, Kuechly toured the area for the first time since ’07.
For a moment, he was back in the Turk Alberta Locker Room (no longer there) with his Cincinnati St. Xavier teammates, inhaling the exhortations of Steve Specht (still the head coach) prior to the OHSAA Division I state championship game against Mentor.
A proud alumnus of a school that has made eight trips to the OHSAA state finals, he enjoyed reliving the celebration of his team’s 27-0 victory. Kuechly was a junior linebacker who a strip-sack against Ohio’s Mr. Football, Bart Tanski.
Xavier senior Darius Ashley ran over Mentor for 271 yards and headed for the University of Louisville. Senior teammate Danny Milligan scored a touchdown and kicked two field goals on his way to the Cincinnati Bearcats.
In his own senior year with the Bombers, Kuechly played on a good team with a disappointing record, 4-6. Every week brought a tough opponent. One tough loss came in overtime against eventual state champion Cleveland St. Ignatius.
College recruiters knew about him but certainly didn’t see Canton coming.
Scott McVey, a star Ignatius linebacker, was recruited by Boston College but signed with Ohio State. Kuechly didn’t get an offer from Ohio State and went to Boston College.
In college, Kuechly’s only brush with Ohio was two wins over Kent State. He started for BC teams that posted off-the-radar records of 8-5, 7-6 and 4-8. He won big national awards and went into the 2012 NFL draft.
The Browns spent the No. 3 overall pick on Alabama running back Trent Richardson. Three quarterbacks (Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill), a tackle (Matt Kalil), a receiver (Justin Blackmon), a cornerback (Morris Claiborne), and a safety (Mark Barron) also were drafted in the top eight.
The Carolina Panthers took Kuechly at No. 9. reminiscent of linebacker Brian Urlacher lasting until No. 9 in the 2000 draft and then outplaying the people chosen earlier.
Kuechly’s favorite NFL team, Cincinnati, not surprisingly, knew him and wanted him. Marcus Lewis had been his summer lacrosse teammate. Marcus’s dad, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, called Kuechly one of the best college linebacker prospects he ever saw.
The Bengals were out of luck. They didn’t draft until No. 17.
Kuechly checked the boxes at the Combine, measuring 6-foot-3, 238 pounds, running a sub-4.6 40, popping a 38-inch vertical jump.
Draft analyst Mike Mayock wrote an presciently glowing report. Fans in the Carolinas soon were chanting L-u-u-u-ke.
Kuechly gave the Panthers eight seasons, mostly at middle linebacker, and walked away, desiring to be healthy in the next stage of life.
Now 36, he is three months younger than Demario Davis, a 2012 draft pick who is still in the league with the Jets.
Kuechly looks to be in tremendous shape. He is a bachelor who works for the Panthers Radio Network and has coached middle-school football at Charlotte Christian.
His fellow Class of 2026 Hall of Famer Brees calls Kuechly the best defensive player he faced.
The 2012 Browns could have used Kuechly but thought they were OK at linebacker with D’Qwell Jackson, James-Michael Johnson and Kaluka Maiava.
Anybody could have used Kuechly.
He was NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2012, when the Panthers, building under head coach Ron Rivera, won five of their last six games.
He was NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2013, when Carolina went 12-4.
He made first-team All-Pro on a 2014 playoff team and again in 2015, when the Panthers went 15-1 and routed the Vikings 38-7 in the NFC Championship Game.
He continued to play at a high level when healthy.
He missed just 10 games in eight seasons, but the toll of NFL contact, including a few concussions, led to his retirement after the 2019 season.
Kuechly’s prowess in a condensed period was such that he reached the Hall of Fame in just his second year of eligibility. He is the second youngest player to make it, after Gale Sayers, who was 34 when he was enshrined in 1977.
Ohioans who wanted to watch Kuechly had to go looking for him.
He faced the Browns and Bengals a combined four times. In the first of those games, he made 13 tackles in an overtime tie at Cincinnati. In the second, he threw down Johnny Manziel for a loss on a designed quarterback run; defending run and pass, he made multiple tackles against Jordan Cameron, Josh Gordon and Isaiah Crowell in a 17-13 win.
He was there for all to see in Super Bowl 50, leading a defense that allowed Peyton Manning and the Broncos just 194 net yards. He sacked Manning once and made 10 tackles. He called the 24-10 loss a “deeply painful experience.”
Kuechly grew up in Evendale, a Cincinnati suburb sandwiched between I-71 and I-75, 10 miles north of the Bengals’ and Reds’ stadiums.
His dad, Tom, was a soccer goalie at Xavier University in the early 1980s. His mom, Eileen, was an athlete who attended the University of Cincinnati.
“My parents taught me how to treat people,” he said. “They taught me about doing the right thing, about work ethic, about being a good teammate. That’s all straight-forward, but it’s hard to do.”
Luke is the middle of three brothers who attended St. Xavier High School.
“In my wildest dreams, the Hall of Fame was never something I thought about as a young player,” he said. “I wanted to play well for Kevin Harris on the third- and fourth-grade team. I wanted to start on the seventh/eighth-grade team as a seventh grader. I wanted to start for the Xavier varsity as a junior.
“Xavier had a really good freshman coach and a really good junior varsity coach. Steve Specht, a Xavier graduate, set the tone for what was acceptable, how to conduct yourself on and off the field.
“The young players were always looking around, always wondering, ‘Where’s Steve Specht?’ You didn’t want to be doing something wrong and have him lay the hammer on you.”
Kuechly has a standing joke when someone learns he is from and asks where he went to high school: “There’s only one school in Cincinnati. I went there.”
He has a strong sense for Northeast Ohio.
He was age 1 when Xavier lost to Ignatius in the 1992 state finals in Canton. He was 7 when Xavier fell to McKinley in the state finals in Massillon. He was 14 when Xavier beat Massillon in the state finals in Canton.
“The Xavier-Massillon game was my first trip to Canton,” he said. “I was a freshman, there as a fan. I got to play in Canton in the 2007 game.
“It’s very cool for my family, and for me, to be in Canton for the Hall of Fame Week.
“It’s full circle.”
Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
The Canton Repository sports department can be contacted via email at sports@cantonrep.com.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: O-H? Uh, no. Buckeyes, Browns, Bengals missed boat on Luke Kuechly
Reporting by Steve Doerschuk, Canton Repository / The Repository
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By Steve Doerschuk, Canton Repository | USA TODAY Network
