Luke Kuechly announced his retirement in January after eight NFL seasons with a statement that said he knew it was the right thing to do because he didn’t know if he could “play fast, play physical and play strong” anymore.
During a recent interview with Mike Tirico, Kuechly said he hasn’t had any second thoughts about that decision. He knows he “gave everything I had” to the game as a player and that he’s looking in other directions now.
Kuechly told Tirico he hopes to “find a way to stay involved in football somehow.” He mentioned coaching, a front office role and broadcasting as possibilities and discussed seeing Jason Witten, Tony Romo and Ronde Barber in the latter role as something that held some appeal.
“Those guys, you can tell that they played at a high level and they still have the ability to stay involved with the game,” Kuechly said. “I think that part is something that’s attractive to me just in the sense that they played it and are still involved it in an interesting role.”
Kuechly also said he’s discussed coaching with former teammate and current Panthers special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn, who told him it felt like the closest he could come to actually playing the game. Kuechly didn’t say whether he had any offers in either area, but Panthers head coach Matt Rhule did say in January that he’d want Kuechly on his staff at some point.
