When Kuechly stepped onto the stage Thursday night, he became the third Panthers legend in five years to be inducted into the Hall, joining Sam Mills and Julius Peppers. He shares a lot of qualities of both — the leadership, selflessness, and ability to hit like Mills, and the transcendent athletic ability of Peppers.
He never got to meet Mills, despite embodying the ideal of Keep Pounding, but he got to play alongside Peppers for two seasons, after walking the halls of Bank of America Stadium marveling at the image of the legendary defensive end for five years before that.
But when Peppers thinks about his first impressions of Kuechly, he doesn’t think about game-winning interceptions or blowing up game plans.
“What I remember most about Luke is that he was just a great teammate; one of my favorite teammates, man,” Peppers said. “And I played a long time, had hundreds, maybe even thousands of teammates over the years. Luke was one of my very favorites, man, just because of how he was as a teammate, as a person, outside of how great he was as a football player, which that’s a whole other story in itself.
“But just how he was with the guys in the locker room, just trying to be one of the guys, trying to be a great teammate, trying to be a leader, doing things the right way, being very professional. So that’s what I saw in him and that’s what I really admired about him more than all the great things he did on the field, right?”
