The Group Chat Episode 30: LUUUUKE

people ourselves, we were very impacted by the news. And then we are sharing some of our favorite loop keek Lee stories. He had the guys come into the TV studio and he had them believed that they were doing a live feed to a local elementary school for whom the teacher of the elementary school baked Thanksgiving pies. His whole thing was he put everything from his coveroard, you know, just a bunch of salt, you know, like, and so they're in the back watching these guys have to eat this.

We have those things and more on this week's the group Chat. You've been added to the group chat with your friends Caroline can, Max Sensen, and Will Brian. In the NFL offseason, people always ask us, what do you do? You still work? Is it? Yeah? We work? Hello? This has been the craziest last couple of weeks for the Carolina Panthers. Are really as far as any off season that I've been a part of. Has this been the craziest one for you guys? You think without a doubt,

Oh yeah, without it. I mean, that's the first time I've gone through a head coaching change. It was always just Ron, so that alone was going to make things crazy. And then when somebody walks into the office and says Luke Kikleys retired, it's just kind of a I mean, everybody just kind of stops in their tracks. It's excuse me, you're kidding, right, yeah, and then okay, it's time to get to work. And that was last night. Was crazy, just crazy. It was crazy. I did not know about

it until it hit the press. Like for everyone else, I was not in the office yesterday. I was. I called to check in at the end of the day. Nothing had happened. At about five oh five p m. Nothing had happened. Said, you know, all right, I'll see you tomorrow, but I'm probably gonna come in a little late. Nope. Then about we were driving to Charlotte and popped. I thought it was a joke, but I was very confused about when. I was like, why is Luke playing this?

Like this is an odd joke. It's not funny, and Luke, this is not on brand for Luke. He wouldn't sign off on this. I just kept waiting for one of the pauses in the video when he had to collect himself a little bit. I was expecting to be like, guys, I'm just kidding back, but it's like, why would he even do that? That's not I was not requestioning if you were leaving Luca. Maybe you know, Larry Fitzgerald just said he's coming back, but not these other I don't.

I was very confused my I had to watch it multiple times before I finally realized, oh my gosh, he's he really is stepping away from football. This is not a joke. Yeah, I mean, this is one of the things I wrote about today was I think anybody who's watched Luke for the past few years now probably probably saw this coming, not quite this quickly, but knew that this was not going to be like a Ray Lewis situation where he was going to play this game until

he was pushing forward it. I mean, like we we you could tell with the injuries that he had sustained throughout the course of his career, this is probably going to be something that was It was just not going to be that kind of career years old though. Is

that's going to shock people? And from our side of things, it was crazy to be in possession of that news and like watches it was as like we hit send on the media to share with fans out there and just because you just knew what the reaction was going to be and how hard that was going to hit people. So to literally watch it all happen in real time and just us as people ourselves, we were very impacted

by the news. Um as we're about to talk about for the next however long we go, half hour or whatever. It is like everybody loves this guy and everyone's really gonna miss him. So it was a lot to digest

and process last night. I don't know what will Yeah, it was having having to go from hearing it doing what everyone did last night was which was oh my, you know, like processing and you know, getting that information, wondering whether it's a joke, you know, and then like, wait a minute, we're doing what right now, and then immediately have to go into okay, how does this work? You know? Unfortunately, I think we've gotten we've gotten pretty good at these big at these big news breaking things

that we're doing now. Um, so we we kind of had a sense a little bit, but then working through what we were doing behind the scenes, and then then there's Luke in the building and you're just like it hits you again, you know, like you get hit the first time, and then you see him and then you hear him, and and and kind of having to digest all of that. I mean, it was it was something to then try to then put his career in perspective and try to step back and try to think, okay,

what is how do we put this into words? How do we make this feel right? How do we make this feel classy? How do we how do we do something for him? Because you know, it really felt right. Yeah, we need to do right by him in that moment. I also think in this time, it is funny sometimes to see the reaction on social media when retirement comes for players or even when coaches get fired. It's almost like people are mourning the person we're not mourning the person.

We're we we I will not even say we are mourning Luke Ki Gleef. He's still a lot. I he's kicking, he's doing well. Uh, he's just decided to change careers. I always think about this in retrospect of we know plenty of people every week, multiple people a year for sure that just decide, Hey, I'm going to take a career change. Can you imagine if a accountant just halfway through it was like, I'm going to law school. I'm just I'm gonna do. I'll put out a press release,

I'll have a press conference this afternoon. I'm going to law school. I'm gonna give up this illustrious career that I have in taxes and being a financial advisor. I'm going to law school. And that's what I'm doing. That's that's what's happening here. People. Yes, it is very crazy that Lucas he's not going to be in the spotlight anymore. And there's a there's a strong possibility, there's a strong

possibility we never hear from Luke keeek Legan. He has no social media, he does not He's going to go walk off into the woods. That is the piece of this that is is astounding in that you know you're not going to see him on Sundays anymore. He's not a part of the franchise and the way that we've been so used to seeing him. My big question is, and I'm going to put this out there for anyone listening, we never heard retire come out of Luke Keikley's mouth.

He never said he said stepping away from football. I am going to put it out there. He's not retired. People until that paperwork is filed, which you can overturn. We've seen this multiple times. He's stepping away from football now I think where he's coming from. Yes, it is a it's not he's not meaning for He made this decision. He's not being forced out. He made this decision. And I think a lot of it has to do with the injuries that you were mentioning. But yeah, guys, yeah,

I think he retired. Him saying I can't play the game the way it needs to be played. It tells you everything. Um, his the position he plays, it's inherently extremely violent and is so physically demanding that you can you can only do it one way, and that's what That's what Luke said in the video, and this is where he got pretty emotional too, was you know, there's only one way to do it, uh, and if he feels like he can't, then he can't walk back on

that field. And that's and that's that's why he's he's not going to again. It's just as I said, we've we've we've all witnessed and we all know how hard it was to witness what happened to Luke a few years ago in the field. Nobody ever wants to see that again. Um most importantly the people close to Luke, and that's where a lot of the emotion I think from that video is coming from. Yeah, I'm going to fuel the fire of he's not retired for I'm just gonna feel that fire. But I alost say it sounds

a lot like when Andrew Luck retired. There was a sense of peace of it was tough. In the same way of watching Andrew Luck say he's stepping away and he loves the game of football, but he in the same mind, I think they're they're that next level of football intelligence. They're they're the standard. That's what it side with Luke Keikley he's making this decision, and he is at peace with the fact that he can't do that anymore. You can't play at the level that he feels is

required of him in the NFL. So he he is at peace with stepping away from that. But it doesn't mean that he just all of a sudden hates football

and doesn't want to be a part of it. But I think there is this natural shift, and he mentioned a little bit in the video, there's a natural shift here that's happening in the Carolina Panthers to where it's not just a mindset of getting your body ready for another season for you, it's also getting on board and ready for this shift that's coming in the locker room. We said, I said just last week, unless you're Luke Keikley or Christian McCaffrey, your future is not set here

in Carolina. And maybe some of the young high draft picks outside of those guys, anyone's up. Well now it's just Christian, although I've seen some reports out on Twitter, people having fun of what the Carolina Panthers could do with Christians. So nobody, you know, And I heard check Um.

I heard a lot of people on the radio yesterday and this morning talking about you know, wanting Luke to immediately be like the defensive coordinator, you know, like like and I think that potentially there is some pathway back to that, maybe not here, but somewhere, you know, yeah, like right away. It's just of course not for obvious reasons, but like I just think it's it's it's still so raw. I think for him, like he wants to be out there.

That's another thing he said, like he wants to be playing. He can't, so I think it'd be really hard to be that close to the action. My thing for Luke, I could see him going back to like Sainting Xavier and Cincinnati, where he's obviously he's like a hometown kid, feels comfortable there, just like high school seems like an area he'd thrive in with kind of guys that obviously look up to him in so many ways and you're

involved in the game. Like the think about Andrew luck is he seems like this worldly character who has interests in all sorts of different things, and I'm not seeing Luke. Ke Lee doesn't have interest other than football and fishing. But that's kind of Luke's m O. The guy loves football. There's ever you know, like pre draft, like personal people are always like we gotta find guys that love football, you know, Like that's Luke Keickley to a t. So I feel like someway or another, he's going to be

around the game. And that's another thing he said is he wants to stay involved with this organization. Of course, the alumni are a really important part of things now and going forward. Um, but I wonder how he gets himself involved, maybe in some aspect of coaching, and I don't think college NFL right away, but man, I could see him doing a lot that would be I'd been quite an athletic feature on Luke Keikley, the High School Assistance Fall imagining a high school kid and Luke Keickley.

It's right, alright, Well, we have a lot more that we're going to talk about here about Luke Keickley and his surprising stepping away from football announcement. But we did mention that we're sponsored and so with that comes these really cool reads that we get to do in the middle of these podcasts. So guys get excited because the group chat is brought to you by Lift. You can use Lift to get to the game. But that's in like a couple of months. So maybe you just need

to have a night out on the town. No drinking and driving. So take a lift. You can even go to work or get your groceries. Lift will pick you up out the door, get you to where you need to go. Skip the hassle of finding and paying for parking. That's annoying, we all know it. Just take a lift instead, So download the Pink Lift app, link your credit card and take your first ride today. But right now we're gonna take a different kind of ride. We're taking a

ride down memory lane. We're doing this Luke keik Ley style. So there are so many stories on Twitter right now that are just if you need some just wholehearted family content Twitter. This is not normally say where is the place for you to go? Right now? Panthers, Twitter is the place. So if you were trying to show your son or daughter this world space with Twitter, they keep hearing about now is a good day to go. Do that you don't have to worry about some cuss words

are like weird accounts tweeting at you. So let's go with our our favorite stories. I of course I only have one year of Luke. So I feel like I am just going to take in some of these stories. I have a couple of tidbits, but I want to hear I want to hear you guys have first because you've been with him from multiple multiple years. I think one of the Yeah, I think one of the things that's just more generic that first of all, everyone has a Luke story, which I think is cool. I think

that's that's really unique about him. I mean, as you referenced on Twitter, that everyone has this story of them in Luke. I I think that one of the cool things about him is that everyone's first impression of Luke is always the same. And there's this clip last night from Austin Duke, this hometown UNC Charlotte kid that was undrafted free agent signed by the Panthers in seventeen, and he put this video out from one of his interviews

back back then. Because you kind of feel like when you walk into locker room kind of walker to head now becauld you see Cam Newton and Luke Keickley and then you know the humbling moment is when Luke keakly comes up and say Hi, I'm Luke, and I'm like Luke, I gotta know who you are, man like. So he just a real humble guy. So just coming in and being welcome like that, you know, it just made me feel comfortable, made me feel that whole. I mean literally,

Luke throws up to everybody. Hi, I'm Luke. Hi, I'm hi am Luke. I mean, that's how he introduced himself to me. Did Kelly Street a Grand Designers, that's what she's having to her. He walked into the office and he's like, Hi, I'm Luke. Hi, I'm Kelly. I mean, Hi, I'm Luke. But that's that's that's so him. That's that's a great representation. He did that with a Chloe, who does the Panthers Spanish broadcast. He works on that on game days. He did the same thing to her. He

knows the media members by face and name. In the locker room, she was new. He was like, well, who is this new girl? Walked up and said, Hi, I'm Luke. I was like, I mean she she senior in college, you know, looking for a first job. She turned around, why do not just Holy cow, Luke? What Luke? Just that's what my name is, what I'm doing? Very cool.

I've seen on Twitter to so many fans just kind of saying that they had this interaction with him where like he came and signed their autograph and he like thanked them for coming to the game, and it's just like he's It's sometimes it's like, man, is this guy for real? Like he's just so nice, like to to its point where you're like, nobody's this nice, but that's that. That's who this guy is, um And I think a lot of people who crossed paths with him would all

say that. And usually people like as as big a star at somebody like Luke Kikley is like they have a bad day every once in a while and maybe somebody gets like blown off by an athlete when they're trying to get I don't think you can find a single person who has. That's the kind of story about Luke Kikley. Just always approachable, humble, just a normal dude who happens to be really good at football. And that's

just across the board. So he's also not bad looking, which when I think about when people talk about how nice he is, like normally if you're like cut that person in there, just so nice, what you're saying is that that's something nice I can to say about them. They're a very kind person. No, Luke checks checks multipleses, so that's why. That's why he also can do the whole no Twitter account but still twitters talking all about me. Yeah, I'm just gonna put it out there. Stories we got

um yeah, you got more. Yeah. So that in seventeen

Christians Rookie Year. This was back when Ryan Khalil was on the team, and Ryan would always have these very elaborate kind of rookie prank sort of things, and so this year was he had the guys come into the TV studio and he had them believed that they were doing a live feed to a local elementary school for whom the teacher of the elementary school baked Thanksgiving pies or holiday pies for them, and so they're gonna like eat the pies and like, oh yeah, these are great,

thanks so much kids. Of course Luke baked the pies. And so his whole thing was he put everything from his cupboard, you know, just a bunch of salt, you know, like every different type of spice, you know, like whatever I mean, Luke did, Luke did. So this is like a Luke Ryan Special and so they're in the back watching these guys have to eat this, and of course like and then so it's just our TV people like no, yeah, you gotta keep eating some more, eat some more, you know, yeah,

we're still rolling, We're alive. Eat some more. And they're completely thinking this is real, and Luke is just like trying not to crack up in the back, and Taylor Martin's like, oh yeah, this is that's your Taylor, but this is really good Christian. Christian was very upset when Luke revealed that it was his pies that he made. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Yeah, Luke, Luke has

a sense of humor. I was just showing Caroline here, um season Uh, Luke came into the locker room dressed in costume and that first, just saying those words is not a Luke Keickley thing, like loose the guy on Halloween who's like in the corner laughing at the other

people who were dressed up. But he came dressed as Cam Newton and yeah, like as we look as we look at this again, well I don't know if you have what this looked like, but it was the full on like it's the practice jersey number the number one practice jersey like up to like barely like past his chest. He's got there was they called themselves the wolf Pack the quarterback room that year. So he has the wolf shirt on. It's like this bright orange sleeve. He's got

the towel, the Beats headphones. And this is a photo that got shared on social media. I think Thomas Davis put this out. But like Cam was there like posing with him, and that was hysterical and it showed that like Luke isn't just kind of kind of boring. Old Luke is just gonna kind of sit there quietly, like every once in a while he'll step out and do something. Um. But I remember most about Luke in the locker room. Just we've talked about my passion for food on this show.

Luke Wood just pretty much weekly be like Yo, Max eat anywhere good lately, and we would just sit and talk about restaurants we've eaten. He's like a foodie himself, and a lot of times in what we do, like we have to ask guys to like sit down and talk with us. But the fact that he would like reach out in that way and want you to come and talk to him. You just don't find that often, um.

And so I'll always kind of remember him for for those side chats, and then when it came to football, his willingness to kind of even when the recorder was off, just sit there and talk about the game and give you some more intel into what is actually going on, um, educate you a little bit, and not in a way where it came off is like well, you don't know

what you're talking about because you never played. It was more of a like, yeah, I mean, like I know people are saying that, but like, this is kind of what's actually been happening. And that was hugely helpful for somebody like me who's trying to learn as much as I can to help, you know, inform our fans about what's going on. And Luke was always hugely helpful for that. And again that that is not a common a common thing for people who go out of their way to

do to do stuff like that. So his his just willingness to be again a normal guy to talk to UM, that that'll stand out to me for sure. So there are many things that Luke kick Ley can do, and we've heard a lot of those stories. There's one thing that Luke Kickley cannot do, and that is walk during an interview. He will, he just says it's not doable for him. Me. He's not a walker and talker, He's all I will stand and talk forever. But you asked

me to walk and talk and whatnot. So I did a couple of interviews with Luke over the past year, the very first one, but actually both of the ones that were done in the practice field. We leaned up against the tackling dummies because it would have looked weird to sit out there. It would have looked weird to just be standing with nothing. So we leaned up against these tackling dummies. And there were two things in those interviews that stand out to me. The first one you

mentioned food. So I had just moved to Charlotte, and he asked me, you know, have you tried to try anywhere? Have you gone out to eat yet? Yeah? Well, I just was So I heard many many wonderful things about Luke, and he was as advertised when I met him. He was very gracious in his interview and gave great answers. And then afterwards, you and I have gone gone anywhere? I did ask him in the interview, what's your favorite food?

He didn't have his favorite food tie, yeah. And then he told me where to go and what to order, and then so I go Chicken se level four, Yes, and then I go This place in Charlotte has a a billboard, not a bid board, a shrine. It is. It's the it's a little shrine of him. But it's like, oh, what's the what's the text? And the Yeah, corkboard. They have a corkboard with just photos of Luke and it's it's a full size corkboard. It's not a mini no. And it seems as though every time he's in there,

they take a new photo. But the best thing is I was there with a friend not too long ago. My friend was looking at all the photos and she goes, I don't recognize any of these other guys in the photos, do you like, do you know who they are? And I go over and I look and no, they're normal dudes. This is you know, Luke is not going out and only hanging out with his teammates. He's not, I mean, these are some of them are super awkward. And he takes photos with the people who worked there, but he

continues to go back here. He says, that's his favorite place. And there are a couple of former Panthers in the photos. I remember A. J. Klein makes it in there, Eric Anderson, Ben Jacobs, I think. But there are some very just I mean there's tables guys, four of them, and Luke is the only Yeah, a polo shirt, you know, just you know what else Luke can't do besides walking and talking dance? This was another one he will hate. I don't think he listens to the group chat, but he

will really hate you. This is this is the one episode that we don't want you to share with Luke. He doesn't have to. What else you can do it there? But but in two thousand thirteen, I think he was at a Place sixty event and part of it was a dance challenge against one of the other teachers. There is video of this online still, if you are so inclined to go research and find yourself, Caroline, you probably should check this out. Um he his dance moves are

I honestly can't find the words. It's are you pulling up right now? Will? Yeah? I see you're typing away like like he did the one where like you hold your nose and you're like, yeah, like this, it's it's incredible. The linebacker room after all this, there were photos and video of this share. The linebacker room after this was over was then redecorated with photos of Luke doing these dances.

And I believe linebackers coach I Will Holcom at the time made like the screen projector screensaver one of those one of those photos. So he did not live that one down for a while. And probably why we have not seen him dance. Yeah, I think that was the last time you part took in one of them. He swore off all dancing. He's not doing that. So many good Luke stories we we would love if you're listening to this and you're thinking, wait, I have one share

with us on Twitter. Has been My favorite part is just hearing because almost every single story is the same. It's you know, we met him, he said thank you so nice. He sat and talked to me for a little while, and he made me love him more. My niece, she's four and a half almost, she'll be five in April. She was very sad, very very sad when I told her, and then she started asking all the questions, well, well is there a video of KM. I was like, no, can you not say that? Well, what about is there

one of Christians? No? No, stop asking questions, No, stop stop asking these questions. But she was very she She even asked her parents this morning. They text me this morning. Yeah, I mean, you gotta think of all the kids out there. We've got keekly Jersey's you know, he's He's got a lot of young fans. Um. And it's tough. I mean, there aren't many people like you were saying, Caroline. A lot of people step away from one line of work

and go into another. There aren't many who get to walk out to a stadium and have seventy thousand people scream Luke um. People say that all the time. It's not a it doesn't feel like a real job. You could say that on the outside. But I thought this was interesting. Pat McAfee was talking about it this morning. We're watching this video. So if you get distracted, let's see can Caroline keep it keep it straight as she talks it now? Riley still has that same Yeah. Riley

hadn't changed a bit. What years this Yeah, And like the Luke Kickley hairstyles over the years. Something fun to track. They have changed a lot. He's nervous, he's kind of you could tell he doesn't know what he's going to do. And you know, Steve Smith, it's clearly ready to record this. Yeah. Who just jumped off the step. Yeah, so he's like preparing. Oh the teacher, so the teachers doing. Oh Luke is very nervous. Oh gosh. Oh she's spinning a round now

with the sprinkler. Okay, other way already tapping out. Oh okay, what is that called? Okay? Oh no, oh no, there's more, there's more. That was just round one. Oh my god. Oh oh, she stole his dance move though. I mean he's winning right now. Oh please, he's got hit him with something fresh after this. Okay, we've got oh the hand wave oh and now the wave both wave goes back. Oh gosh, oh Luke, I'm nervous. Oh God, finish it off. Yea, there it is. She's done. He danced for maybe ten

seconds total. Yeah, gosh, alright, well everyone it does on YouTube. You should go. I don't even know what was that talking about. I don't even I don't even know what I was talking about. So I do, I do? I knew so Pat McAfee was on his show talking about this stepping away and putting closing this chapter, and I thought his perspective was interesting. Obviously he's gone through this

when he stepped away. I was in Indianapolis when he decided to be done with football, and people were like, dude, you're a punter, like you just keep kicking and you'll collect paychecks. You can do anything that you want. Just keep doing that. And he even said this a lot of people like where are your friends right now? Why are they not on you? I'm saying, please just stay in here and collect these checks. But I thought what

he had to say was really interesting. He wanted to take he he felt like all of his talent and his mind and his intelligence was not being used correctly for that time in his life anymore. He had a ton of fun playing football, but he was getting to a point where he was bored going into work. He felt like, you know, the regime that had been there before him, that had come to a close. He wasn't happy with that regime, so he was frustrated before they left.

But you know that general manager had left there with a new general manager coming into town. This was a time where you had to re up. You had to decide am I going all in and and buying into what this new regime is doing, or do I feel like it's time for my brain and my talents and everything that I'm thinking to go do something else. Obviously, it's been wally successful for Pat McAfee, and he has found himself a ton of success elsewhere. We don't know

what's next for Luke Piekley. We may never know. Like we said, he's going to go into the woods and we'll never hear from him again. But I think that's an interesting piece of this. Luke is so smart. He has you know, he's not married yet, he doesn't have the family yet. He has a whole life ahead of him that is not football. I think Andrew Luck's going through something similar. Him and his wife just had a baby that was, you know, right after he announced his retirement.

So he's on this new life and and and putting his talent and resources somewhere else because of how much time football takes. And then that's what I respect the most out of Luke from his video that he did and hearing him and reading all about it is he's just you know, he's okay, taking his talents and and going elsewhere. I think he's always gonna love the game of football, but he's saying, I can't do it like I used to, So I'm going to go put my

talent somewhere else. And you have to respect that. And even if you played another five years like it's such, it's such a short period of your life. I mean, you've taught you walk away from the game at thirty five and forty years old. There's a lot of life left to live. Um, And I think that's that's hard for all of these guys, is knowing when that time is to transition into that and then figuring out what

that next chapter is going to be. Some guys like you mentioned Caroline Pat McAfee, like Um, they found great success in another line of work. And you know, we talked about it for a while now. Greg Olsen is clearly setting himself up. Luke. We don't quite know exactly what the future is gonna hold, but there's no doubt that a guy with his intelligence and ability to connect with people really more so than anything else, is going

to be great at whatever he does. And to look back on this chapter of his life, let's just say this one of the greatest defensive players to ever play the game, hands down, one of the greatest middle linebackers, if not the greatest. I mean, there's an argument to be had about who played that position better than anybody. And it's got Michael Singletary, and it's got Bryan or Lacker and Ray Lewis and Luke Keikley And on each of their days, you could say any one of those

guys was the best to ever do it. That is, that's that's special. I think there's a place for him waiting in the Hall of Fame. This guy in this franchise alone is a legend and icon. Nine that number and what it will forever mean here, I mean to talk about what one guy accommished in eight years. It's

it's incredible and and the legacy he leaves behind. So while we kind of look ahead to what's maybe coming for Luke, we can also look back and celebrate what was an incredible run to play this game and to do it at such a high level. Yeah, and I think that's why people do feel this sense of mourning. I'm not making fun of you out there. If you've been mourning, I get it. Like This is a huge not just for the Carolina Panthers, but for the game of football, and this is a huge player walking away

from the game. It's going to change. But I think too can't want to pay their fans. You guys, you're about to find out if you're a writer die because there have been so many changes with this organization. Changes are not fun to always go through, and I think this is a prime example of that. The Panthers gonna be fine. Guys. You know, I think Luke he said it that he has left this the linebacker room and he feels like he can't keep up with them anymore.

This is not like he's walking away and there's no talent left. So I think that there's just a lot of change coming. Just buckle up. We didn't know quite how crazy this offseason was going to be. We knew it could be. We didn't know Luca's retiring. Well, we'll be flat up with you here. We didn't know this was on the docket, So who knows what other surprises are in store for us this sea, So just buckle up. I know we are plenty plenty of storyline. It is

love our partners that lift. Yeah, we do love them, but the pink lift up. Guys, thank you so much for listening again. I'm sure next week on the group chat, well you know we will not be short on topics to talk about. There's plenty that is going to happen over the next couple of days here at the Carolina Panthers. So thank you guys for listening, thanks for lift, for paying our bills, and we'll see you all next week.