Sculpting Lu-u-u-ke: Behind the scenes as Kuechly strikes pose for hall of fame
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Luke Kuechly posed for sculptor Ben Hammond during a two-day sitting in Utah in May.
- Hammond created the clay model of Kuechly’s face; eventually, it will be bronzed.
- Kuechly’s bronze bust will be unveiled at the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Aug. 8.
Luke Kuechly had an NFL career built on movement — anticipating, reacting, running and hitting.
But for two days in late May, he tried to develop a different talent:
Learning to be still.
During those two days, Kuechly posed for sculptor Ben Hammond. As one of the three sculptors employed regularly by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Hammond had been commissioned to create the Kuechly bust that will be unveiled at the former Carolina Panther’s induction into the hall on Aug. 8. Kuechly’s face will become the 53rd one that Hammond has sculpted for the hall of fame.
For both Kuechly and Hammond, the process was enlightening.
“It’s phenomenal what Ben could do,” said Kuechly, who flew to Provo, Utah, for the sitting. It lasted 13 hours overall, all inside Hammond’s studio. Kuechly didn’t have to be utterly still the whole time; he would walk around and sneak peeks at a clay version of his face occasionally.
“Luke is cool because he’s kind of like me,” Hammond said. “He doesn’t care about social media. He was obsessed with playing football and was really good at it when he played, but now he wants to talk about other things. We talked more about recipes for smoking chicken thighs than about football.”
The sculpture exhibited in the Pro Football Hall of Fame along with hundreds of others — Kuechly is officially hall of famer No. 386 — will be made of bronze. But first, a clay model of Kuechly’s face had to be created. That process began with measurements before this year’s Super Bowl, as Kuechly’s skull was measured by lead sculptor Blair Buswell. Those numbers were then sent to Hammond.
“I began by blocking out kind of a generic head according to those measurements,” said Hammond, who also studies multiple videos and photos of players whose careers ended recently, like Kuechly. “By the time they come and pose, I’ve got it far enough along that it kind of looks like them, but also maybe looks more like a brother or a distant cousin.”
Said Kuechly: “I showed up and he had about 80 percent of it done. And I said, ‘That’s really cool.’ but he said, ‘Oh dude, you haven’t seen anything yet.’ And then he just looks at you and puts clay on and uses his tools to take it off. After the first day I was like, ‘Wow this is great.’ And he said, ‘Wait until I put the eyes in.’”
The detailing of the eyes is one of the final steps, Hammond said, because once the eyes are done, the sculptor finds it hard to look anywhere else while he’s working. But there were also decisions to be made along the way. One of them included Kuechly’s hair. It was longer and messier earlier in the first half of his career (2012-15), then shorter and neater in his final years (2016-19) before his early retirement at age 28.
“Artistically,” Hammond said, “I told Luke that I loved it when his hair was longer and a little more all over the place.”
Kuechly agreed and so Hammond got to experiment with making the hair somewhat unruly. The end result, Hammond said, was “the funnest hair I’ve ever done.”
Hammond sculpted Kuechly, who’s still only 35, in the early part of his prime years as a Panther — so roughly around age 24. Since Kuechly’s playing days ended following the 2019 season, Kuechly (now an analyst for the Panthers’ radio team, a role he will continue in 2026) has dropped a little weight. He also is no longer involved in the endless collisions that make up the average day of an NFL linebacker.
The end result, Kuechly said, is “the Luke sculpture looks like it could beat me up.”
Throughout the process, Hammond asked Kuechly and his family members for advice on details and anything he might need to change. Hammond said one of his fears as a sculptor is to make a bust or statue that a lot of people don’t think looks much like the subject at all — sculptures of the NBA’s Dwyane Wade and soccer’s Cristiano Ronaldo have both suffered that fate over the past decade.
The Kuechly family, though, never offered much in the way of criticism.
“I’ve seen it get to probably 98 percent of the way there,” Kuechly said of his bust, “and it’s phenomenal. I haven’t seen it after it goes through the whole process of bronzing, though — that won’t be until the hall of fame weekend.”
For the five-person Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026, Hammond also was the sculptor for former San Francisco 49ers running back Roger Craig. The busts of the other three members of the class — quarterback Drew Brees, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and kicker Adam Vinatieri — were created by the two other men who sculpt for the hall of fame.
Kuechly’s sculpture was literally in good hands. Hammond, 49, has done so many of these busts that this wasn’t even the first Panthers linebacker he’s been assigned. He also created the bust for the late Sam Mills in 2022, although Mills’ death in 2005 meant that he had to do that one based mostly on old videos and photos.
The entire process from beginning to end for a hall of fame bust takes Hammond around 60-80 hours. As for the particular challenge in sculpting Kuechly, Hammond said: “He’s a very handsome guy, which is actually kind of tough. He’s got a face for a ‘Superman’ movie. Usually people are considered handsome because they have some unique and delicate bone structure. That’s tricky in a lot of ways. Compare it to a big offensive lineman — somebody that’s got real character to his face. That’s almost easier to capture, as compared to really subtle features.”
Subtle? Kuechly?
He wasn’t on the field, that’s for sure. But when you see photos of the Kuechly bust next month, know that the sculptor tried to inject a little subtlety in it. And, if you take a close look, make sure to check out the hair.
