INDIANAPOLIS – Luke Kuechly spent the 2021 football season hunting, fishing and traveling to beautiful wilderness spots he’d dreamed about, experiencing things he never had time for during his eight years as a Pro Bowl linebacker for the Carolina Panthers and one year as a scout for the team.
He got the same glow when he talked about shooting an elk with his dad as when he talked about the pick-six that finished off a win over the Arizona Cardinals in the 2015 NFC Championship Game.
At 30, Kuechly looks as though he could still be one of the NFL’s elite defenders, although he insists the 20 pounds he shed since retiring in January 2020 would make that tough.