When Luke Kuechly retired from the NFL in 2020 by age 28, he had played eight stellar years as a linebacker for the Carolina Panthers and had suffered at least three documented concussions.
He joined other star players under the age of 30, including quarterback Andrew Luck and tight end Rob Gronkowski, who had chosen to leave pro football largely due to concerns about the health implications of long-term play. (Gronkowksi returned after one season.)
But Kuechly, 32, still maintains close ties to the game, having spent a season as a scout for his former team and now coaching 12-year-old football with his former teammate Greg Olsen.
In a phone interview from his home in Charlotte, NC, Kuechly discussed how current NFL players like Tua Tagovailoa take blows to the head, whether he’s concerned about his cognitive health, and what he tells his players’ parents about the dangers of tackle football.
This interview has been slightly edited and shortened for clarity.
You attended the conference last month to discuss traumatic brain injury. What did you think the level of consciousness was?
I think everyone understands the situation around TBI and concussion. I think everyone understands that there are things that can be done. But the more we can come up and talk about it and explain perspectives and different ways of looking at it and little ways to make a positive impact, the better off we are, I think.
You joined the NFL in 2012, when concussion awareness was changing dramatically. Have you noticed that difference?
I think everything in the NFL has such a different microscope, really very often in a positive way. There is a very strict return policy, No. 1. No. 2, there are independent spotters at every game, in every stadium, and there are several whose sole job is to watch the game to see if anyone gets hit or behaves abnormally. So the NFL, I think, has done a really good job of trying to keep the players safe on the field and giving them a chance to return to play safely as well.
You had several concussions. Was one of them harder to deal with than the others?
You watch other guys, you learn from other guys, you talk to a lot of guys — and that’s what you hear is, “Hey, get yourself better. Once you’re better, you can go out again. So that’s what I learned, thankfully early on, from our trainers and our coaches and different doctors and guys that I played with who said this isn’t like a sprained ankle you can just deal with it and get through it and can hold out. This is something where you have to be smart and understand that this is a different situation. You have to let it get better.
Do you think the culture of getting out of the game at a relatively young age has changed while you were in the NFL?
If you look back on it, Barry Sanders left a few years earlier. Calvin Johnson clearly stepped away. Gronk stepped away. I think it happens at a different point for everyone. [Sanders and Johnson both retired at 30. Gronkowski announced his first retirement at 29.]
You worked as a scout for the Panthers in 2020. Why?
I like football, I like being around the game, I like being around the boys. And that was a really good opportunity for me to slowly, over the course of the year, move away from the team, but still be able to be around it and be around the game, be involved and have some impact to have. And of course there’s quite a bit of structure to that just because we were there pretty much every day working on different projects, checking the exemption threads, watching free agents.
I assume you looked at what happened to Tua Tagovailoa last year. Did that make you cry a little?
No. The most important thing to me is that I just want guys to be safe. I want guys to have the chance to play the game they love for as long as possible. But I think everyone in the NFL understands it’s a violent game. It’s physical, it’s tough. There are big, strong guys running around, and getting hurt is inevitable. I want Tua to play as long as Tua wants, and I want him to play as safe as possible. But in the end it’s kind of the game now: they’re just big guys running fast, hitting hard, lifting weights. Things move very fast out there.
A study was published last week that looked not only at the number of hits players take over the course of their career, but also at their cumulative impact. Are you concerned about your own long-term cognitive health?
I’m not worried about it, but I’m very aware of it. Since I finished playing, I’ve been reading a lot. I’ve done a lot of homework. I’ve spoken to many people. I don’t worry about it, but I’m very aware of, “Hey, there are certain things you can do that will be helpful and you might as well take advantage of it.”
I think the most important thing for me is a healthy lifestyle. Eat well, sleep well, exercise, be outside, have good relationships with people. Keep your mind active.
What do you tell parents who are concerned about the safety of the game when you coach?
I say to a lot of people, “Hey, you do what you think is best for your child. You are their parent. In the end, you know what’s best for them.” I only talk about the positives, whether it’s what I’ve learned about toughness, how to fight my way through things, how to build relationships, the people I’ve met through the game, the experiences I’ve had with got the game.