Speaker 1: Hey, groupies. This week on the group Chat, we're talking
Speaker 1: about the huge surprise news that dropped earlier this week.
Speaker 1: From our side of things, it was crazy to be
Speaker 1: in possession of that news, and like watches, it was
Speaker 1: as like we hit send on the media to share
Speaker 1: with fans out there, and just because you just knew
Speaker 1: what the reaction was going to be and how hard
Speaker 1: that was going to hit people. So to literally watch
Speaker 1: it all happen in real time and just us as
Speaker 1: people ourselves, we were very impacted by the news. And
Speaker 1: then we are sharing some of our favorite loop keek
Speaker 1: Lee stories. He had the guys come into the TV
Speaker 1: studio and he had them believed that they were doing
Speaker 1: a live feed to a local elementary school for whom
Speaker 1: the teacher of the elementary school baked Thanksgiving pies. His
Speaker 1: whole thing was he put everything from his coveroard, you know,
Speaker 1: just a bunch of salt, you know, like, and so
Speaker 1: they're in the back watching these guys have to eat this.
Speaker 1: We have those things and more on this week's the
Speaker 1: group Chat. You've been added to the group chat with
Speaker 1: your friends Caroline can, Max Sensen, and Will Brian. In
Speaker 1: the NFL offseason, people always ask us, what do you do?
Speaker 1: You still work? Is it? Yeah? We work? Hello? This
Speaker 1: has been the craziest last couple of weeks for the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers. Are really as far as any off season
Speaker 1: that I've been a part of. Has this been the
Speaker 1: craziest one for you guys? You think without a doubt,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, without it. I mean, that's the first time
Speaker 1: I've gone through a head coaching change. It was always
Speaker 1: just Ron, so that alone was going to make things crazy.
Speaker 1: And then when somebody walks into the office and says
Speaker 1: Luke Kikleys retired, it's just kind of a I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody just kind of stops in their tracks. It's excuse me,
Speaker 1: you're kidding, right, yeah, and then okay, it's time to
Speaker 1: get to work. And that was last night. Was crazy,
Speaker 1: just crazy. It was crazy. I did not know about
Speaker 1: it until it hit the press. Like for everyone else,
Speaker 1: I was not in the office yesterday. I was. I
Speaker 1: called to check in at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: Nothing had happened. At about five oh five p m.
Speaker 1: Nothing had happened. Said, you know, all right, I'll see
Speaker 1: you tomorrow, but I'm probably gonna come in a little late. Nope.
Speaker 1: Then about we were driving to Charlotte and popped. I
Speaker 1: thought it was a joke, but I was very confused
Speaker 1: about when. I was like, why is Luke playing this?
Speaker 1: Like this is an odd joke. It's not funny, and Luke,
Speaker 1: this is not on brand for Luke. He wouldn't sign
Speaker 1: off on this. I just kept waiting for one of
Speaker 1: the pauses in the video when he had to collect
Speaker 1: himself a little bit. I was expecting to be like, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding back, but it's like, why would he
Speaker 1: even do that? That's not I was not requestioning if
Speaker 1: you were leaving Luca. Maybe you know, Larry Fitzgerald just
Speaker 1: said he's coming back, but not these other I don't.
Speaker 1: I was very confused my I had to watch it
Speaker 1: multiple times before I finally realized, oh my gosh, he's
Speaker 1: he really is stepping away from football. This is not
Speaker 1: a joke. Yeah, I mean, this is one of the
Speaker 1: things I wrote about today was I think anybody who's
Speaker 1: watched Luke for the past few years now probably probably
Speaker 1: saw this coming, not quite this quickly, but knew that
Speaker 1: this was not going to be like a Ray Lewis
Speaker 1: situation where he was going to play this game until
Speaker 1: he was pushing forward it. I mean, like we we
Speaker 1: you could tell with the injuries that he had sustained
Speaker 1: throughout the course of his career, this is probably going
Speaker 1: to be something that was It was just not going
Speaker 1: to be that kind of career years old though. Is
Speaker 1: that's going to shock people? And from our side of things,
Speaker 1: it was crazy to be in possession of that news
Speaker 1: and like watches it was as like we hit send
Speaker 1: on the media to share with fans out there and
Speaker 1: just because you just knew what the reaction was going
Speaker 1: to be and how hard that was going to hit people.
Speaker 1: So to literally watch it all happen in real time
Speaker 1: and just us as people ourselves, we were very impacted
Speaker 1: by the news. Um as we're about to talk about
Speaker 1: for the next however long we go, half hour or whatever.
Speaker 1: It is like everybody loves this guy and everyone's really
Speaker 1: gonna miss him. So it was a lot to digest
Speaker 1: and process last night. I don't know what will Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was having having to go from hearing it doing
Speaker 1: what everyone did last night was which was oh my,
Speaker 1: you know, like processing and you know, getting that information,
Speaker 1: wondering whether it's a joke, you know, and then like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, we're doing what right now, and then
Speaker 1: immediately have to go into okay, how does this work?
Speaker 1: You know? Unfortunately, I think we've gotten we've gotten pretty
Speaker 1: good at these big at these big news breaking things
Speaker 1: that we're doing now. Um, so we we kind of
Speaker 1: had a sense a little bit, but then working through
Speaker 1: what we were doing behind the scenes, and then then
Speaker 1: there's Luke in the building and you're just like it
Speaker 1: hits you again, you know, like you get hit the
Speaker 1: first time, and then you see him and then you
Speaker 1: hear him, and and and kind of having to digest
Speaker 1: all of that. I mean, it was it was something
Speaker 1: to then try to then put his career in perspective
Speaker 1: and try to step back and try to think, okay,
Speaker 1: what is how do we put this into words? How
Speaker 1: do we make this feel right? How do we make
Speaker 1: this feel classy? How do we how do we do
Speaker 1: something for him? Because you know, it really felt right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we need to do right by him in that moment.
Speaker 1: I also think in this time, it is funny sometimes
Speaker 1: to see the reaction on social media when retirement comes
Speaker 1: for players or even when coaches get fired. It's almost
Speaker 1: like people are mourning the person we're not mourning the person.
Speaker 1: We're we we I will not even say we are
Speaker 1: mourning Luke Ki Gleef. He's still a lot. I he's kicking,
Speaker 1: he's doing well. Uh, he's just decided to change careers.
Speaker 1: I always think about this in retrospect of we know
Speaker 1: plenty of people every week, multiple people a year for
Speaker 1: sure that just decide, Hey, I'm going to take a
Speaker 1: career change. Can you imagine if a accountant just halfway
Speaker 1: through it was like, I'm going to law school. I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm gonna do. I'll put out a press release,
Speaker 1: I'll have a press conference this afternoon. I'm going to
Speaker 1: law school. I'm gonna give up this illustrious career that
Speaker 1: I have in taxes and being a financial advisor. I'm
Speaker 1: going to law school. And that's what I'm doing. That's
Speaker 1: that's what's happening here. People. Yes, it is very crazy
Speaker 1: that Lucas he's not going to be in the spotlight anymore.
Speaker 1: And there's a there's a strong possibility, there's a strong
Speaker 1: possibility we never hear from Luke keeek Legan. He has
Speaker 1: no social media, he does not He's going to go
Speaker 1: walk off into the woods. That is the piece of
Speaker 1: this that is is astounding in that you know you're
Speaker 1: not going to see him on Sundays anymore. He's not
Speaker 1: a part of the franchise and the way that we've
Speaker 1: been so used to seeing him. My big question is,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to put this out there for anyone listening,
Speaker 1: we never heard retire come out of Luke Keikley's mouth.
Speaker 1: He never said he said stepping away from football. I
Speaker 1: am going to put it out there. He's not retired.
Speaker 1: People until that paperwork is filed, which you can overturn.
Speaker 1: We've seen this multiple times. He's stepping away from football
Speaker 1: now I think where he's coming from. Yes, it is
Speaker 1: a it's not he's not meaning for He made this decision.
Speaker 1: He's not being forced out. He made this decision. And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it has to do with
Speaker 1: the injuries that you were mentioning. But yeah, guys, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he retired. Him saying I can't play the
Speaker 1: game the way it needs to be played. It tells
Speaker 1: you everything. Um, his the position he plays, it's inherently
Speaker 1: extremely violent and is so physically demanding that you can
Speaker 1: you can only do it one way, and that's what
Speaker 1: That's what Luke said in the video, and this is
Speaker 1: where he got pretty emotional too, was you know, there's
Speaker 1: only one way to do it, uh, and if he
Speaker 1: feels like he can't, then he can't walk back on
Speaker 1: that field. And that's and that's that's why he's he's
Speaker 1: not going to again. It's just as I said, we've
Speaker 1: we've we've all witnessed and we all know how hard
Speaker 1: it was to witness what happened to Luke a few
Speaker 1: years ago in the field. Nobody ever wants to see
Speaker 1: that again. Um most importantly the people close to Luke,
Speaker 1: and that's where a lot of the emotion I think
Speaker 1: from that video is coming from. Yeah, I'm going to
Speaker 1: fuel the fire of he's not retired for I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna feel that fire. But I alost say it sounds
Speaker 1: a lot like when Andrew Luck retired. There was a
Speaker 1: sense of peace of it was tough. In the same
Speaker 1: way of watching Andrew Luck say he's stepping away and
Speaker 1: he loves the game of football, but he in the
Speaker 1: same mind, I think they're they're that next level of
Speaker 1: football intelligence. They're they're the standard. That's what it side
Speaker 1: with Luke Keikley he's making this decision, and he is
Speaker 1: at peace with the fact that he can't do that anymore.
Speaker 1: You can't play at the level that he feels is
Speaker 1: required of him in the NFL. So he he is
Speaker 1: at peace with stepping away from that. But it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that he just all of a sudden hates football
Speaker 1: and doesn't want to be a part of it. But
Speaker 1: I think there is this natural shift, and he mentioned
Speaker 1: a little bit in the video, there's a natural shift
Speaker 1: here that's happening in the Carolina Panthers to where it's
Speaker 1: not just a mindset of getting your body ready for
Speaker 1: another season for you, it's also getting on board and
Speaker 1: ready for this shift that's coming in the locker room.
Speaker 1: We said, I said just last week, unless you're Luke
Speaker 1: Keikley or Christian McCaffrey, your future is not set here
Speaker 1: in Carolina. And maybe some of the young high draft
Speaker 1: picks outside of those guys, anyone's up. Well now it's
Speaker 1: just Christian, although I've seen some reports out on Twitter,
Speaker 1: people having fun of what the Carolina Panthers could do
Speaker 1: with Christians. So nobody, you know, And I heard check Um.
Speaker 1: I heard a lot of people on the radio yesterday
Speaker 1: and this morning talking about you know, wanting Luke to
Speaker 1: immediately be like the defensive coordinator, you know, like like
Speaker 1: and I think that potentially there is some pathway back
Speaker 1: to that, maybe not here, but somewhere, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: like right away. It's just of course not for obvious reasons,
Speaker 1: but like I just think it's it's it's still so raw.
Speaker 1: I think for him, like he wants to be out there.
Speaker 1: That's another thing he said, like he wants to be playing.
Speaker 1: He can't, so I think it'd be really hard to
Speaker 1: be that close to the action. My thing for Luke,
Speaker 1: I could see him going back to like Sainting Xavier
Speaker 1: and Cincinnati, where he's obviously he's like a hometown kid,
Speaker 1: feels comfortable there, just like high school seems like an
Speaker 1: area he'd thrive in with kind of guys that obviously
Speaker 1: look up to him in so many ways and you're
Speaker 1: involved in the game. Like the think about Andrew luck
Speaker 1: is he seems like this worldly character who has interests
Speaker 1: in all sorts of different things, and I'm not seeing Luke.
Speaker 1: Ke Lee doesn't have interest other than football and fishing.
Speaker 1: But that's kind of Luke's m O. The guy loves football.
Speaker 1: There's ever you know, like pre draft, like personal people
Speaker 1: are always like we gotta find guys that love football,
Speaker 1: you know, Like that's Luke Keickley to a t. So
Speaker 1: I feel like someway or another, he's going to be
Speaker 1: around the game. And that's another thing he said is
Speaker 1: he wants to stay involved with this organization. Of course,
Speaker 1: the alumni are a really important part of things now
Speaker 1: and going forward. Um, but I wonder how he gets
Speaker 1: himself involved, maybe in some aspect of coaching, and I
Speaker 1: don't think college NFL right away, but man, I could
Speaker 1: see him doing a lot that would be I'd been
Speaker 1: quite an athletic feature on Luke Keikley, the High School
Speaker 1: Assistance Fall imagining a high school kid and Luke Keickley.
Speaker 1: It's right, alright, Well, we have a lot more that
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about here about Luke Keickley and
Speaker 1: his surprising stepping away from football announcement. But we did
Speaker 1: mention that we're sponsored and so with that comes these
Speaker 1: really cool reads that we get to do in the
Speaker 1: middle of these podcasts. So guys get excited because the
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Speaker 1: and take your first ride today. But right now we're
Speaker 1: gonna take a different kind of ride. We're taking a
Speaker 1: ride down memory lane. We're doing this Luke keik Ley style.
Speaker 1: So there are so many stories on Twitter right now
Speaker 1: that are just if you need some just wholehearted family
Speaker 1: content Twitter. This is not normally say where is the
Speaker 1: place for you to go? Right now? Panthers, Twitter is
Speaker 1: the place. So if you were trying to show your
Speaker 1: son or daughter this world space with Twitter, they keep
Speaker 1: hearing about now is a good day to go. Do
Speaker 1: that you don't have to worry about some cuss words
Speaker 1: are like weird accounts tweeting at you. So let's go
Speaker 1: with our our favorite stories. I of course I only
Speaker 1: have one year of Luke. So I feel like I
Speaker 1: am just going to take in some of these stories.
Speaker 1: I have a couple of tidbits, but I want to
Speaker 1: hear I want to hear you guys have first because
Speaker 1: you've been with him from multiple multiple years. I think
Speaker 1: one of the Yeah, I think one of the things
Speaker 1: that's just more generic that first of all, everyone has
Speaker 1: a Luke story, which I think is cool. I think
Speaker 1: that's that's really unique about him. I mean, as you
Speaker 1: referenced on Twitter, that everyone has this story of them
Speaker 1: in Luke. I I think that one of the cool
Speaker 1: things about him is that everyone's first impression of Luke
Speaker 1: is always the same. And there's this clip last night
Speaker 1: from Austin Duke, this hometown UNC Charlotte kid that was
Speaker 1: undrafted free agent signed by the Panthers in seventeen, and
Speaker 1: he put this video out from one of his interviews
Speaker 1: back back then. Because you kind of feel like when
Speaker 1: you walk into locker room kind of walker to head
Speaker 1: now becauld you see Cam Newton and Luke Keickley and
Speaker 1: then you know the humbling moment is when Luke keakly
Speaker 1: comes up and say Hi, I'm Luke, and I'm like Luke,
Speaker 1: I gotta know who you are, man like. So he
Speaker 1: just a real humble guy. So just coming in and
Speaker 1: being welcome like that, you know, it just made me
Speaker 1: feel comfortable, made me feel that whole. I mean literally,
Speaker 1: Luke throws up to everybody. Hi, I'm Luke. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: hi am Luke. I mean, that's how he introduced himself
Speaker 1: to me. Did Kelly Street a Grand Designers, that's what
Speaker 1: she's having to her. He walked into the office and
Speaker 1: he's like, Hi, I'm Luke. Hi, I'm Kelly. I mean, Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Luke. But that's that's that's so him. That's that's
Speaker 1: a great representation. He did that with a Chloe, who
Speaker 1: does the Panthers Spanish broadcast. He works on that on
Speaker 1: game days. He did the same thing to her. He
Speaker 1: knows the media members by face and name. In the
Speaker 1: locker room, she was new. He was like, well, who
Speaker 1: is this new girl? Walked up and said, Hi, I'm Luke.
Speaker 1: I was like, I mean she she senior in college,
Speaker 1: you know, looking for a first job. She turned around,
Speaker 1: why do not just Holy cow, Luke? What Luke? Just
Speaker 1: that's what my name is, what I'm doing? Very cool.
Speaker 1: I've seen on Twitter to so many fans just kind
Speaker 1: of saying that they had this interaction with him where
Speaker 1: like he came and signed their autograph and he like
Speaker 1: thanked them for coming to the game, and it's just
Speaker 1: like he's It's sometimes it's like, man, is this guy
Speaker 1: for real? Like he's just so nice, like to to
Speaker 1: its point where you're like, nobody's this nice, but that's that.
Speaker 1: That's who this guy is, um And I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people who crossed paths with him would all
Speaker 1: say that. And usually people like as as big a
Speaker 1: star at somebody like Luke Kikley is like they have
Speaker 1: a bad day every once in a while and maybe
Speaker 1: somebody gets like blown off by an athlete when they're
Speaker 1: trying to get I don't think you can find a
Speaker 1: single person who has. That's the kind of story about
Speaker 1: Luke Kikley. Just always approachable, humble, just a normal dude
Speaker 1: who happens to be really good at football. And that's
Speaker 1: just across the board. So he's also not bad looking,
Speaker 1: which when I think about when people talk about how
Speaker 1: nice he is, like normally if you're like cut that
Speaker 1: person in there, just so nice, what you're saying is
Speaker 1: that that's something nice I can to say about them.
Speaker 1: They're a very kind person. No, Luke checks checks multipleses,
Speaker 1: so that's why. That's why he also can do the
Speaker 1: whole no Twitter account but still twitters talking all about me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna put it out there. Stories we got
Speaker 1: um yeah, you got more. Yeah. So that in seventeen
Speaker 1: Christians Rookie Year. This was back when Ryan Khalil was
Speaker 1: on the team, and Ryan would always have these very
Speaker 1: elaborate kind of rookie prank sort of things, and so
Speaker 1: this year was he had the guys come into the
Speaker 1: TV studio and he had them believed that they were
Speaker 1: doing a live feed to a local elementary school for
Speaker 1: whom the teacher of the elementary school baked Thanksgiving pies
Speaker 1: or holiday pies for them, and so they're gonna like
Speaker 1: eat the pies and like, oh yeah, these are great,
Speaker 1: thanks so much kids. Of course Luke baked the pies.
Speaker 1: And so his whole thing was he put everything from
Speaker 1: his cupboard, you know, just a bunch of salt, you know,
Speaker 1: like every different type of spice, you know, like whatever
Speaker 1: I mean, Luke did, Luke did. So this is like
Speaker 1: a Luke Ryan Special and so they're in the back
Speaker 1: watching these guys have to eat this, and of course
Speaker 1: like and then so it's just our TV people like no, yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta keep eating some more, eat some more, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're still rolling, We're alive. Eat some more. And they're
Speaker 1: completely thinking this is real, and Luke is just like
Speaker 1: trying not to crack up in the back, and Taylor
Speaker 1: Martin's like, oh yeah, this is that's your Taylor, but
Speaker 1: this is really good Christian. Christian was very upset when
Speaker 1: Luke revealed that it was his pies that he made.
Speaker 1: That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Yeah, Luke, Luke has
Speaker 1: a sense of humor. I was just showing Caroline here,
Speaker 1: um season Uh, Luke came into the locker room dressed
Speaker 1: in costume and that first, just saying those words is
Speaker 1: not a Luke Keickley thing, like loose the guy on
Speaker 1: Halloween who's like in the corner laughing at the other
Speaker 1: people who were dressed up. But he came dressed as
Speaker 1: Cam Newton and yeah, like as we look as we
Speaker 1: look at this again, well I don't know if you
Speaker 1: have what this looked like, but it was the full
Speaker 1: on like it's the practice jersey number the number one
Speaker 1: practice jersey like up to like barely like past his chest.
Speaker 1: He's got there was they called themselves the wolf Pack
Speaker 1: the quarterback room that year. So he has the wolf
Speaker 1: shirt on. It's like this bright orange sleeve. He's got
Speaker 1: the towel, the Beats headphones. And this is a photo
Speaker 1: that got shared on social media. I think Thomas Davis
Speaker 1: put this out. But like Cam was there like posing
Speaker 1: with him, and that was hysterical and it showed that
Speaker 1: like Luke isn't just kind of kind of boring. Old
Speaker 1: Luke is just gonna kind of sit there quietly, like
Speaker 1: every once in a while he'll step out and do something. Um.
Speaker 1: But I remember most about Luke in the locker room.
Speaker 1: Just we've talked about my passion for food on this show.
Speaker 1: Luke Wood just pretty much weekly be like Yo, Max
Speaker 1: eat anywhere good lately, and we would just sit and
Speaker 1: talk about restaurants we've eaten. He's like a foodie himself,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times in what we do, like
Speaker 1: we have to ask guys to like sit down and
Speaker 1: talk with us. But the fact that he would like
Speaker 1: reach out in that way and want you to come
Speaker 1: and talk to him. You just don't find that often, um.
Speaker 1: And so I'll always kind of remember him for for
Speaker 1: those side chats, and then when it came to football,
Speaker 1: his willingness to kind of even when the recorder was off,
Speaker 1: just sit there and talk about the game and give
Speaker 1: you some more intel into what is actually going on, um,
Speaker 1: educate you a little bit, and not in a way
Speaker 1: where it came off is like well, you don't know
Speaker 1: what you're talking about because you never played. It was
Speaker 1: more of a like, yeah, I mean, like I know
Speaker 1: people are saying that, but like, this is kind of
Speaker 1: what's actually been happening. And that was hugely helpful for
Speaker 1: somebody like me who's trying to learn as much as
Speaker 1: I can to help, you know, inform our fans about
Speaker 1: what's going on. And Luke was always hugely helpful for that.
Speaker 1: And again that that is not a common a common
Speaker 1: thing for people who go out of their way to
Speaker 1: do to do stuff like that. So his his just
Speaker 1: willingness to be again a normal guy to talk to UM,
Speaker 1: that that'll stand out to me for sure. So there
Speaker 1: are many things that Luke kick Ley can do, and
Speaker 1: we've heard a lot of those stories. There's one thing
Speaker 1: that Luke Kickley cannot do, and that is walk during
Speaker 1: an interview. He will, he just says it's not doable
Speaker 1: for him. Me. He's not a walker and talker, He's
Speaker 1: all I will stand and talk forever. But you asked
Speaker 1: me to walk and talk and whatnot. So I did
Speaker 1: a couple of interviews with Luke over the past year,
Speaker 1: the very first one, but actually both of the ones
Speaker 1: that were done in the practice field. We leaned up
Speaker 1: against the tackling dummies because it would have looked weird
Speaker 1: to sit out there. It would have looked weird to
Speaker 1: just be standing with nothing. So we leaned up against
Speaker 1: these tackling dummies. And there were two things in those
Speaker 1: interviews that stand out to me. The first one you
Speaker 1: mentioned food. So I had just moved to Charlotte, and
Speaker 1: he asked me, you know, have you tried to try anywhere?
Speaker 1: Have you gone out to eat yet? Yeah? Well, I
Speaker 1: just was So I heard many many wonderful things about Luke,
Speaker 1: and he was as advertised when I met him. He
Speaker 1: was very gracious in his interview and gave great answers.
Speaker 1: And then afterwards, you and I have gone gone anywhere?
Speaker 1: I did ask him in the interview, what's your favorite food?
Speaker 1: He didn't have his favorite food tie, yeah. And then
Speaker 1: he told me where to go and what to order,
Speaker 1: and then so I go Chicken se level four, Yes,
Speaker 1: and then I go This place in Charlotte has a
Speaker 1: a billboard, not a bid board, a shrine. It is.
Speaker 1: It's the it's a little shrine of him. But it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: what's the what's the text? And the Yeah, corkboard. They
Speaker 1: have a corkboard with just photos of Luke and it's
Speaker 1: it's a full size corkboard. It's not a mini no.
Speaker 1: And it seems as though every time he's in there,
Speaker 1: they take a new photo. But the best thing is
Speaker 1: I was there with a friend not too long ago.
Speaker 1: My friend was looking at all the photos and she goes,
Speaker 1: I don't recognize any of these other guys in the photos,
Speaker 1: do you like, do you know who they are? And
Speaker 1: I go over and I look and no, they're normal dudes.
Speaker 1: This is you know, Luke is not going out and
Speaker 1: only hanging out with his teammates. He's not, I mean,
Speaker 1: these are some of them are super awkward. And he
Speaker 1: takes photos with the people who worked there, but he
Speaker 1: continues to go back here. He says, that's his favorite place.
Speaker 1: And there are a couple of former Panthers in the photos.
Speaker 1: I remember A. J. Klein makes it in there, Eric Anderson,
Speaker 1: Ben Jacobs, I think. But there are some very just
Speaker 1: I mean there's tables guys, four of them, and Luke
Speaker 1: is the only Yeah, a polo shirt, you know, just
Speaker 1: you know what else Luke can't do besides walking and
Speaker 1: talking dance? This was another one he will hate. I
Speaker 1: don't think he listens to the group chat, but he
Speaker 1: will really hate you. This is this is the one
Speaker 1: episode that we don't want you to share with Luke.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have to. What else you can do it there?
Speaker 1: But but in two thousand thirteen, I think he was
Speaker 1: at a Place sixty event and part of it was
Speaker 1: a dance challenge against one of the other teachers. There
Speaker 1: is video of this online still, if you are so
Speaker 1: inclined to go research and find yourself, Caroline, you probably
Speaker 1: should check this out. Um he his dance moves are
Speaker 1: I honestly can't find the words. It's are you pulling
Speaker 1: up right now? Will? Yeah? I see you're typing away
Speaker 1: like like he did the one where like you hold
Speaker 1: your nose and you're like, yeah, like this, it's it's incredible.
Speaker 1: The linebacker room after all this, there were photos and
Speaker 1: video of this share. The linebacker room after this was
Speaker 1: over was then redecorated with photos of Luke doing these dances.
Speaker 1: And I believe linebackers coach I Will Holcom at the
Speaker 1: time made like the screen projector screensaver one of those
Speaker 1: one of those photos. So he did not live that
Speaker 1: one down for a while. And probably why we have
Speaker 1: not seen him dance. Yeah, I think that was the
Speaker 1: last time you part took in one of them. He
Speaker 1: swore off all dancing. He's not doing that. So many
Speaker 1: good Luke stories we we would love if you're listening
Speaker 1: to this and you're thinking, wait, I have one share
Speaker 1: with us on Twitter. Has been My favorite part is
Speaker 1: just hearing because almost every single story is the same.
Speaker 1: It's you know, we met him, he said thank you
Speaker 1: so nice. He sat and talked to me for a
Speaker 1: little while, and he made me love him more. My niece,
Speaker 1: she's four and a half almost, she'll be five in April.
Speaker 1: She was very sad, very very sad when I told her,
Speaker 1: and then she started asking all the questions, well, well
Speaker 1: is there a video of KM. I was like, no,
Speaker 1: can you not say that? Well, what about is there
Speaker 1: one of Christians? No? No, stop asking questions, No, stop
Speaker 1: stop asking these questions. But she was very she She
Speaker 1: even asked her parents this morning. They text me this morning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you gotta think of all the kids out there.
Speaker 1: We've got keekly Jersey's you know, he's He's got a
Speaker 1: lot of young fans. Um. And it's tough. I mean,
Speaker 1: there aren't many people like you were saying, Caroline. A
Speaker 1: lot of people step away from one line of work
Speaker 1: and go into another. There aren't many who get to
Speaker 1: walk out to a stadium and have seventy thousand people
Speaker 1: scream Luke um. People say that all the time. It's
Speaker 1: not a it doesn't feel like a real job. You
Speaker 1: could say that on the outside. But I thought this
Speaker 1: was interesting. Pat McAfee was talking about it this morning.
Speaker 1: We're watching this video. So if you get distracted, let's
Speaker 1: see can Caroline keep it keep it straight as she
Speaker 1: talks it now? Riley still has that same Yeah. Riley
Speaker 1: hadn't changed a bit. What years this Yeah, And like
Speaker 1: the Luke Kickley hairstyles over the years. Something fun to track.
Speaker 1: They have changed a lot. He's nervous, he's kind of
Speaker 1: you could tell he doesn't know what he's going to do.
Speaker 1: And you know, Steve Smith, it's clearly ready to record this. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Who just jumped off the step. Yeah, so he's like preparing.
Speaker 1: Oh the teacher, so the teachers doing. Oh Luke is
Speaker 1: very nervous. Oh gosh. Oh she's spinning a round now
Speaker 1: with the sprinkler. Okay, other way already tapping out. Oh okay,
Speaker 1: what is that called? Okay? Oh no, oh no, there's more,
Speaker 1: there's more. That was just round one. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, she stole his dance move though. I mean
Speaker 1: he's winning right now. Oh please, he's got hit him
Speaker 1: with something fresh after this. Okay, we've got oh the
Speaker 1: hand wave oh and now the wave both wave goes back.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, oh Luke, I'm nervous. Oh God, finish it off. Yea,
Speaker 1: there it is. She's done. He danced for maybe ten
Speaker 1: seconds total. Yeah, gosh, alright, well everyone it does on YouTube.
Speaker 1: You should go. I don't even know what was that
Speaker 1: talking about. I don't even I don't even know what
Speaker 1: I was talking about. So I do, I do? I
Speaker 1: knew so Pat McAfee was on his show talking about
Speaker 1: this stepping away and putting closing this chapter, and I
Speaker 1: thought his perspective was interesting. Obviously he's gone through this
Speaker 1: when he stepped away. I was in Indianapolis when he
Speaker 1: decided to be done with football, and people were like, dude,
Speaker 1: you're a punter, like you just keep kicking and you'll
Speaker 1: collect paychecks. You can do anything that you want. Just
Speaker 1: keep doing that. And he even said this a lot
Speaker 1: of people like where are your friends right now? Why
Speaker 1: are they not on you? I'm saying, please just stay
Speaker 1: in here and collect these checks. But I thought what
Speaker 1: he had to say was really interesting. He wanted to
Speaker 1: take he he felt like all of his talent and
Speaker 1: his mind and his intelligence was not being used correctly
Speaker 1: for that time in his life anymore. He had a
Speaker 1: ton of fun playing football, but he was getting to
Speaker 1: a point where he was bored going into work. He
Speaker 1: felt like, you know, the regime that had been there
Speaker 1: before him, that had come to a close. He wasn't
Speaker 1: happy with that regime, so he was frustrated before they left.
Speaker 1: But you know that general manager had left there with
Speaker 1: a new general manager coming into town. This was a
Speaker 1: time where you had to re up. You had to
Speaker 1: decide am I going all in and and buying into
Speaker 1: what this new regime is doing, or do I feel
Speaker 1: like it's time for my brain and my talents and
Speaker 1: everything that I'm thinking to go do something else. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it's been wally successful for Pat McAfee, and he has
Speaker 1: found himself a ton of success elsewhere. We don't know
Speaker 1: what's next for Luke Piekley. We may never know. Like
Speaker 1: we said, he's going to go into the woods and
Speaker 1: we'll never hear from him again. But I think that's
Speaker 1: an interesting piece of this. Luke is so smart. He
Speaker 1: has you know, he's not married yet, he doesn't have
Speaker 1: the family yet. He has a whole life ahead of
Speaker 1: him that is not football. I think Andrew Luck's going
Speaker 1: through something similar. Him and his wife just had a
Speaker 1: baby that was, you know, right after he announced his retirement.
Speaker 1: So he's on this new life and and and putting
Speaker 1: his talent and resources somewhere else because of how much
Speaker 1: time football takes. And then that's what I respect the
Speaker 1: most out of Luke from his video that he did
Speaker 1: and hearing him and reading all about it is he's
Speaker 1: just you know, he's okay, taking his talents and and
Speaker 1: going elsewhere. I think he's always gonna love the game
Speaker 1: of football, but he's saying, I can't do it like
Speaker 1: I used to, So I'm going to go put my
Speaker 1: talent somewhere else. And you have to respect that. And
Speaker 1: even if you played another five years like it's such,
Speaker 1: it's such a short period of your life. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've taught you walk away from the game at thirty
Speaker 1: five and forty years old. There's a lot of life
Speaker 1: left to live. Um, And I think that's that's hard
Speaker 1: for all of these guys, is knowing when that time
Speaker 1: is to transition into that and then figuring out what
Speaker 1: that next chapter is going to be. Some guys like
Speaker 1: you mentioned Caroline Pat McAfee, like Um, they found great
Speaker 1: success in another line of work. And you know, we
Speaker 1: talked about it for a while now. Greg Olsen is
Speaker 1: clearly setting himself up. Luke. We don't quite know exactly
Speaker 1: what the future is gonna hold, but there's no doubt
Speaker 1: that a guy with his intelligence and ability to connect
Speaker 1: with people really more so than anything else, is going
Speaker 1: to be great at whatever he does. And to look
Speaker 1: back on this chapter of his life, let's just say
Speaker 1: this one of the greatest defensive players to ever play
Speaker 1: the game, hands down, one of the greatest middle linebackers,
Speaker 1: if not the greatest. I mean, there's an argument to
Speaker 1: be had about who played that position better than anybody.
Speaker 1: And it's got Michael Singletary, and it's got Bryan or
Speaker 1: Lacker and Ray Lewis and Luke Keikley And on each
Speaker 1: of their days, you could say any one of those
Speaker 1: guys was the best to ever do it. That is,
Speaker 1: that's that's special. I think there's a place for him
Speaker 1: waiting in the Hall of Fame. This guy in this
Speaker 1: franchise alone is a legend and icon. Nine that number
Speaker 1: and what it will forever mean here, I mean to
Speaker 1: talk about what one guy accommished in eight years. It's
Speaker 1: it's incredible and and the legacy he leaves behind. So
Speaker 1: while we kind of look ahead to what's maybe coming
Speaker 1: for Luke, we can also look back and celebrate what
Speaker 1: was an incredible run to play this game and to
Speaker 1: do it at such a high level. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: think that's why people do feel this sense of mourning.
Speaker 1: I'm not making fun of you out there. If you've
Speaker 1: been mourning, I get it. Like This is a huge
Speaker 1: not just for the Carolina Panthers, but for the game
Speaker 1: of football, and this is a huge player walking away
Speaker 1: from the game. It's going to change. But I think
Speaker 1: too can't want to pay their fans. You guys, you're
Speaker 1: about to find out if you're a writer die because
Speaker 1: there have been so many changes with this organization. Changes
Speaker 1: are not fun to always go through, and I think
Speaker 1: this is a prime example of that. The Panthers gonna
Speaker 1: be fine. Guys. You know, I think Luke he said
Speaker 1: it that he has left this the linebacker room and
Speaker 1: he feels like he can't keep up with them anymore.
Speaker 1: This is not like he's walking away and there's no
Speaker 1: talent left. So I think that there's just a lot
Speaker 1: of change coming. Just buckle up. We didn't know quite
Speaker 1: how crazy this offseason was going to be. We knew
Speaker 1: it could be. We didn't know Luca's retiring. Well, we'll
Speaker 1: be flat up with you here. We didn't know this
Speaker 1: was on the docket, So who knows what other surprises
Speaker 1: are in store for us this sea, So just buckle up.
Speaker 1: I know we are plenty plenty of storyline. It is
Speaker 1: love our partners that lift. Yeah, we do love them,
Speaker 1: but the pink lift up. Guys, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening again. I'm sure next week on the group chat,
Speaker 1: well you know we will not be short on topics
Speaker 1: to talk about. There's plenty that is going to happen
Speaker 1: over the next couple of days here at the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 1: So thank you guys for listening, thanks for lift, for
Speaker 1: paying our bills, and we'll see you all next week.