Why was Luke Kuechly’s early retirement praised but Andrew Luck’s mocked?
When news of Andrew Luck retiring found its way to Twitter and the phones of fans in Lucas Oil Stadium in the midst of a Colts’ preseason game, the star quarterback was booed off the field.
Circumstances differentiate Luck’s and Luke Kuechly’s retirements. Luck retired just before the season began, with the news getting leaked a day before he had intended to have a press conference. Panthers linebacker Kuechly, on the other hand, waited until the season ended and announced his retirement via a video posted on the team’s Twitter account at 8:30 p.m. on a weekday in January.
Timing is everything. But would Kuechly have been booed off the field in a similar circumstance? It seems unlikely, but who would have thought that would happen to Luck, who said he was tired of rehabbing from repeated injuries?
The way we view NFL players deciding to retire earlier in their careers, even in their primes, has changed. The more we know about football, the more aware we are of why these decisions make sense. Kuechly is someone who has a history of concussions and said he was no longer playing one of the most physical positions on the field at the same speed he once did. Middle linebacker isn’t a position played by many anymore the way he played it. Kuechly was beloved for his performance on the field and what he brought to the team, and for the person he was away from it all.
But in the past, fans have viewed players as selfish for leaving behind their team or even thought that they were leaving out of “fear” of injuries yet to come; such was the case of former 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find those words being used about Kuechly. There’s only praise for him, and sadness for what the Panthers are losing.
We have a better understanding now at the cost these players take to play the game. There’s more of a desire to keep in mind that at 28, or even at 38 years old, these players have life to live away from the game. That’s worth preserving, especially if you no longer feel like you’re performing up to the standard you used to as a player. On top of that, the NFL is more profitable than ever. Even players not as accomplished as Kuechly can play for a period of time and then walk away with solid earnings intact.
I have only been covering the Panthers since November. I didn’t get to know Kuechly as well as I would have liked or covered him for as long as I had hoped.
Watching him from the TV screen the past eight years, I was, like many others, in awe of his ability as a football player to recognize opponents’ plays before they happened and know exactly where the ball would end up. His ability to make tough open-field tackles. I heard about him off the field, too, how he would take time for fans and attend community events, like so many NFL players take the time to do, but he wasn’t flashy about it. He doesn’t have social media.
I can vividly remember my first media scrum surrounding his locker and the way he talked about football. He has passion for the game, and it was evident in every word he said by explaining the intricacies of the game with the knowledge he possessed.
It was unique and it was Luke.
I remember asking a fellow reporter afterward, “Is he always like that? Does he always speak about football in that way?” The answer was, of course, yes. On a weekly basis.
Maybe seemingly everyone responded to the news of Kuechly’s retirement with sadness and reverence because of who he is and what he has done. That would be OK. Maybe it was the timing, as the Panthers prepare for an overhaul in the organization. Maybe it was the fact that this is simply becoming more of a trend.
Most likely, it was a combination of it all.
More NFL players will retire before fans wish they would. This trend isn’t going away. Hopefully, they will be treated more similarly to the way Kuechly was than players in years past.
Oh, this news happened this week
- In case you missed it (news broke about two hours before Luke Kuechly retired), the Panthers hired LSU’s Joe Brady as their offensive coordinator on Tuesday. Brady, 30, is fresh off of a national championship and called plays for the Tigers in empty sets and in the red zone.
- Christian McCaffrey won’t be attending the Pro Bowl.
Required Kuechly reading
+ Luke Kuechly retired at 28. Panthers, NFL legends give an inside look at what it takes to walk away
+ No Luke Kuechly leaves Panthers hurting at linebacker. Analyzing Carolina’s options
+ Fowler: Why Greg Olsen says Panthers’ Luke Kuechly is ‘very at peace’ with his retirement
+ The case for Luke Kuechly to make the Hall of Fame
+ Fowler: Luke Kuechly is the one retiring from the Panthers, so why are we the ones feeling so bad?
This story was originally published January 17, 2020 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Why was Luke Kuechly’s early retirement praised but Andrew Luck’s mocked?."