Luke Kuechly is getting his gold jacket, and Greg Olsen isn’t holding back on what that means to the people around him. The former Carolina Panthers tight end spoke about his old teammate’s Pro Football Hall of Fame induction during NBC’s broadcast of Thursday night’s Hall of Fame Game, and the message went well past the field.
Olsen and Kuechly played together in Carolina from 2012 to 2019. These days, they coach middle school football together at Charlotte Christian School in Charlotte, North Carolina, with Olsen as head coach and Kuechly running the defense.
“But the amount of people back home that love this guy and the impact that he’s made on my family, our kids, the families around Charlotte. We could do an entire broadcast on who this guy is, and it would have nothing to do with playing football,” Olsen said, per NBC’s broadcast. “It would take like an act of God to cancel practice or Luke getting in the Hall of Fame. So Luke getting in the Hall of Fame, we canceled practice this morning so everyone can travel here, and I’m not happy about it. But if there’s one guy that will cancel practice for it, it’s him.”
Yahoo Sports separately captured the same moment, describing Olsen canceling practice for his high school team so his players could make the trip to Canton, Ohio, to watch Kuechly get honored.
The two shared the field in a Panthers season opener Thursday night, a game the club used to celebrate its former linebacker one day ahead of his official enshrinement. Carolina beat the Arizona Cardinals 33-30 on a last-play touchdown scramble from rookie quarterback Haynes King, but the pregame and broadcast storyline belonged to Kuechly. Panthers players streamed off the team bus wearing his No. 59 jersey, one after another, well before kickoff.
Luke Kuechly’s Time With the Panthers
Kuechly has made his mark on the league and on Carolina’s organization going back to 2012, when the Panthers took him ninth overall out of Boston College. He won Defensive Player of the Year in 2013, earned five first-team All-Pro selections, and finished his career with more than 1,000 total tackles.
| Category | Kuechly’s Career Mark |
|---|---|
| NFL Draft | No. 9 overall, 2012 (Boston College) |
| Defensive Player of the Year | 2013 |
| First-Team All-Pro | 5x |
| Career Tackles | 1,000+ |
Kuechly’s career ended earlier than most Hall of Famers’. He retired after the 2019 season at age 28, citing the toll of multiple concussions. That early exit hasn’t dimmed his case. This is his second year of Hall of Fame eligibility, and he’s set to become the second-youngest player ever inducted, trailing only Gale Sayers.
Coaching alongside him hasn’t been easy for Olsen, at least not in the way people might expect from a Hall of Fame linebacker turned middle school assistant.
“It makes me feel a little uncomfortable…It’s hard to tell him what to do,” Olsen said.
Kuechly gets his gold jacket Saturday in Canton, Ohio, joining a small 2026 class that also includes quarterback Drew Brees, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, and kicker Adam Vinatieri.
