Which items did Luke Kuechly choose for his Hall of Fame display? Let’s ask him
If you only glance at Luke Kuechly’s personalized hall of fame exhibit in Canton, Ohio, you might think it’s fairly standard. There are two No. 59 jerseys in there, as well as a football, some cleats and other memorabilia.
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But each item under glass represents a fragment of Kuechly’s starry career, which will reach its peak Saturday when he is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. And given that the former Carolina Panther linebacker was renowned for his meticulousness, you won’t be surprised to know that he curated each item inside the glass cases with an inordinate amount of care.
On the eve of Kuechly’s induction, I asked him to talk about some of the items he chose and what memories they inspired. Here’s an inside look at what’s in there and why.
The cleats: A pair of Kuechly’s black Nike cleats sits in one case. Between them is a jar of dirt from Bank of America Stadium —then-defensive coordinator Sean McDermott used to hand those out to defensive players as a visual reminder of the importance of protecting their home field advantage.
The cleats have a story behind them, of course.
“When you get to Carolina, you go to the equipment room and there’s 15 pairs of cleats that you can choose from,” Kuechly said. “It was like playland.
“So I tried a couple of different pairs and I finally settled on the ones that I really liked. I wore the same model of cleats from the first game I ever played at Carolina to the last game that I ever played at Carolina. People can say that you’re superstitious, or maybe I’m anal, or I just liked how they felt…. But I felt like the cleat that I wore my whole career in Carolina deserved to be there.”
The notebook: Kuechly’s tiny, precise handwriting filled dozens of notebooks over the course of his eight-year career from 2012-19. He is a visual learner, needing to write something down, over and over, to understand it. They were basically his football journals.
The one he chose for the hall of fame comes from his final season, in 2019, when the Panthers were about to play Houston.
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“The notebook was my prized possession during the week,” Kuechly said. “You write down all the plays and formations and all that stuff. But sometimes you write down how you’re going to approach the game. And one of the things I wrote down in that notebook was I was on a bad streak of being very frustrated about something… I wrote in there to relax. Have fun… It takes you back to those moments of, ‘What was I thinking about?’
The notebook also contains the phrase “PMA,” which is Kuechly’s way of reminding himself to have a positive mental attitude.
The football: The only football in Kuechly’s display cases comes from the Thanksgiving Day game of 2015 — which head coach Ron Rivera considers Kuechly’s best game as a Panther. Kuechly intercepted Dallas QB Tony Romo twice, on back-to-back plays, and returned one of them for a touchdown.
The Q-collar: Kuechly was one of the first NFL players to wear a Q-Collar, which is designed to fit around the neck and to “increase blood volume in the head to help stabilize and protect the brain,” as his display reads. Kuechly missed some time due to concussions in his career, and they were part of the reason for his early retirement at age 28.
The offseason workout plan: Kuechly liked to work out with tight end Greg Olsen in the offseason. Olsen is a fellow football nerd, and a similar player who combined great athleticism with great preparation. Kuechly’s workout sheet makes you a little bit tired just to look at it.
The jerseys: There are two jerseys in the case — one is a Kuechly Pro Bowl jersey. And then there’s the one he cares more about, one of his black Panthers No. 59 jersey that he got to wear late in the season.
“The black jersey was always my favorite,” Kuechly said. “The weather would cool off, and then (for home games) we’d switch from white jerseys to black jerseys. It was November. December. It was cold. And it just felt like football.”
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