Friends describe Luke Kuechly as normal, though he’s anything but

And family is what these people are to Kuechly, these staffers who don’t get their names in print very often. They become part of his, and he becomes part of theirs.

Claire Stokes (nee Burke) had heard the stories, but wasn’t sure they were real (He gets that a lot). She started in the sponsorship department, and came over to help the football side with logistics during the 2015 Super Bowl run, before moving over to football full-time in 2017. She’s now the manager of player personnel operations, which means she runs the scouting department, really.

That year, the Panthers had what was called “Fellowship Friday,” when players and whoever would gather in the cafeteria after practice and eat chicken every week, because they ate Bojangles in Week 1 and only lost one game all year, so why mess with a good thing? It started with a handful of players including Kuechly, Greg Olsen, JJ Jansen, and Ryan Kalil, but the equipment guys and ops staff and the front office and others just kept filtering in, until the end of the year when they kept having to pull up more and more tables to accommodate the crowd.

“We had the normal people, but then we would have some outsiders come in every once in a while just because they knew it was good vibes,” Stokes said. “It was good people, it was a good conversation, and the topics ranged all over the place. At one point we were talking about my wedding. And Greg and JJ were hellbent that they were going to officiate my wedding, and it was a joke, obviously, but that was a topic of conversation one week.”

Stokes got to know Kuechly better in 2020, when he worked in scouting for a year after retirement. He was starting a new job, and as the person who oversees the logistics for the front office, they talked a lot.

“I mean, he’s Luke Kuechly, and he’s a great player, and you saw him on the field, and obviously you see him during this really important emotional transition from on the field to off the field,” she said. “And so, we were along for that ride as well and honored to be a part of that journey with him. He was super interested. There were definitely some challenges along the way, and I don’t want to speak for him, but I would imagine that he found comfort in being in the building with people that he knew and cared for, and that cared for him to kind of walk along him in the journey, but he was super interested.

“I think the emotional transition was likely harder for him than like the transition from learning the Xs and Os from being on the field. He was an amazing scout. That’s what he did when he was on the field anyway.”

Having seen him at a few ceremonies in the past, Stokes laughed and said she can’t wait to see him in Canton next weekend.

“Obviously excited, but the attention all on him is something that he probably does not enjoy,” she said in the understatement of the day. “And that’s another great part of him. He’s so humble, but he’s so confident in what he’s capable of and what he’s done, which is hard to find, I think, in someone of that level.

“I think he will be super excited to have everyone there around him to celebrate with him. But yeah, there’s probably going to be some sweating, some nerves. And deflection. I mean, he wants his people there. He will probably say I’m glad to have everyone here with me to celebrate with me, not celebrate me.”

Here’s a picture of Luke at Claire’s wedding, being a normal guy.