Don’t mourn Luke Kuechly’s retirement, celebrate his career and wish him well

The hair stylist one chair away looked over at me, and said what she needed to stay.

“This is a day of mourning for Charlotte,” she said.

She didn’t have to say who we were mourning. Whether you were getting a haircut, eating lunch or drinking a beer, everybody knew. Luke Kuechly had given up football.

Some athletes are temps. They’re not from here, and their football address is merely the place they play. Others dig in. The Carolina Panthers (and Charlotte Hornets) have several players who have dug in and never leave. Kuechly dug in.

He was an amazing middle linebacker who was seemingly was in the middle of every play. The Panthers drafted him ninth in 2012, and he has been one of us since. Kuechly is the player many of us like to believe we’d be if we had his drive and skill. He’s humble, he’s a worker and he doesn’t crave attention.

Kuechly’s retirement was devoid of fanfare. He talked from the linebackers room at Bank of America Stadium. Occasionally choking back tears, he announced in a 3½-minute video the team that that he was leaving football.

He was diagnosed with concussions in three consecutive seasons, the last of them in 2017. Some well-meaning writers suggested he retire. I couldn’t go that far. Kuechly and his doctors knew how he felt and what he felt and the rewards versus the consequences. The rest of us could merely guess.

I suffered only one concussion. There was a wheelchair and an ambulance, near surgery, ICU and almost four months away work. After leaving the hospital, I remember craving fresh air and going for a walk and reaching a curb and thinking, “What do I? Where do I put my feet?”

Brains become unwired. My then-wife came to visit me in the hospital three times in one day. I tried to say, “You’re a regular Florence Nightingale,” after the founder of modern nursing. That was my plan. My brain short-circuited, and the plan went awry. I said, “You’re a regular Helen Keller.”

A concussion is more than a glorified headache, and the long-range ramifications are scary. We don’t know if they were the catalyst or a catalyst for Kuechly’s retirement. But I suspect they were.

He didn’t have his best season last season. His skills were muted in a 3-4 defense. Also, he depends on the big men in front of him. The more blockers they occupy, the fewer there are to go after the linebackers. Carolina lost both starting tackles this season.

But he was still very good. Fans still had cause to shout “Luuuuuke!” Not that they needed a cause. You know that one of these days Kuechly will be in the checkout line at the grocery strore and hear “Luuuuuke.”

I’d aim my binoculars at him and watch his first step. Yes, he can move. But he had a perpetual head start because that step almost always was in the right direction.

Kuechly loved football, no question about that. Imagine leaving what you love at the age of 28. Think about that. Think of all that would be required to make such a decision.

Two Kuechly stories that say a little about who he is:

In Spartanburg, at training camp at Wofford, there’s a long hill players climb after practice. Once they make it up, air-conditioning awaits.

It was a typical Spartanburg day, temperature about 90 and humidity so thick you could see it. Fans stood along a rope and leaned in close to ask for autographs. Many players began signing, at least 10. Then there were four. Then there was Cam Newton and Kuechly. Finally, there was Kuechly, who before signing the autographs posed for pictures with fans who had enough pull to stand on the edge of the practice field.

What I remember most is that when Kuechly reached the top, he approached the security guard who had been waiting. He apologized for taking so long and thanked the man.

One other story: After Kuechly was named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2013, in his second season, a group of us talked to him about it. He was his usual humble self.

So I asked him if, when he was alone at home with nobody around to hear him, he ever caught his reflection in a mirror and said: “I am the best defensive player in all of football!”

Kuechly considered the question, looked at me and said, “No, I never have.”

He then praised the defensive linemen in front of him, without whom he couldn’t do his job.

I didn’t mourn this week. Thinking back on all that Kuechly has accomplished, I smiled and said, “Thank you for all that you did. And live a great life.”

NFL picks salvaged late — barely

I went 0-4 the first weekend of the playoffs and missed the first two games last weekend to drop me to 0-6. We had gone to a movie Sunday, “Parasite,” and needed to sit down at a bar and talk about what we saw. It’s the kind of movie that requires you to sit down and have a drink even if you don’t drink.

The Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans were on TV, and Houston led 24-0. I thought: I might as well miss them all. Who else can miss eight of eight playoff games?

Ladies and gentlemen, I had a very good season picking winners and Locks. But like the New England Patriots, I had nothing left when the postseason began. If I pick a team, I would ask that you don’t.

And then Kansas City came back roaring and sprinting and dominating. We had one drink. And when we left, the Chiefs were ahead.

In the weekend’s final game, I picked the Green Bay Packers to beat the Seattle Seahawks. The Packers won. That’s two correct picks in a row. When I get on a roll like this, it’s as if some lower level deity is picking winners for me.

This brings us to Sunday. I tried very had to pick an underdog. I failed.

KANSAS CITY 7 over Tennessee.

I love the Titans. Coach Mike Vrabel has been brilliant. But whom are you going to pick to beat the Chiefs at home?

SAN FRANCISCO 4 over Green Bay

I picked the Minnesota Vikings to upset the 49ers last week. There’s a technical term prognosticators use for such predictions. It is: Idiot!

The Vikings had beaten New Orleans in New Orleans, and I figured they might be on a Tennessee-like roll. Minnesota has a very good pass rush. San Francisco has a better one. As good as Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers is, he’s not good enough to consistently beat the San Francisco defense.

So we get a Kansas City-San Francisco Super Bowl.

Clemson-LSU: A game too long

The Louisiana State-Clemson college football championship was compelling for three quarters. But, man, did it go on.

Before the game, there was a musical show that featured a guy in a cowboy hat. I’m not a proponent of cowboy hat music. At halftime, former great college football players were introduced. Happy to see those guys, and I don’t blame them, but halftime dragged on. By the end, even former college walk-ons got their turn on stage. I left for several minutes, came home and halftime still was going on.

At the end of the third quarter, I feared that Madonna or Lady Gaga or a singer in a mask would dance down a plank onto a makeshift middle-of-the-field stage and sing her hit.

Regimes have risen and fallen in fewer minutes than halftime required. The fourth quarter began about 11:30 p.m. on a school night.

The Super Bowl is excessive. But I get it. It is a social event with football tossed in, and there’s no way around it.

College football doesn’t need to mimic the pros. Not every game has to be an event.

How many sports say: “We need to find a way to make our games longer.” It’s not that we have short attention spans, necessarily. It’s that we have other things to do.

The PGA is leaning on slow players. If you need more than 40 or 45 seconds for a shot, go play Putt-Putt, and don’t delay when you see the windmill. You knew it was coming.

One reason Major League Baseball struggles to attract fans is that the games go long. Come on. Just get in there and play. You know how far the mound is from the plate. It hasn’t changed since you last were there.

Some NASCAR races, notably the 600 miler in Charlotte, are a test of stamina for drivers and fans. Laps become numbing; not only do you forget who the leaders are, you forget to care.

We were all going to watch LSU and Clemson, as anticipated a college matchup as we’ve seen. Here’s a model for college football and for every other sport: Get out of the way, and let the players play.

Short takes: Panthers not following convention

▪ Commend the Carolina Panthers for hiring LSU’s Joe Brady as offensive coordinator. The truly confident, not arrogant, but confident, trust what they feel. So they hire a college coach in Matt Rhule, with one season of pro experience, and they hire Brady, who has two. At 30. Brady is a year and a half older than Luke Kuechly. New people bring new perspectives and new ideas. Will it work? We don’t know. Nobody else does, either. But it will be interesting.

What I admire is that the Panthers don’t feel obligated to do adhere to convention. You think it’s right? Don’t seek cover by hiring a somebody safe. Go after the people in whom you believe. Get the next great coach, the next great coordinators...

▪ Brady, was a receiver at William & Mary, class of 2013. Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was a receiver at William & Mary, class of ’95. Sean McDermott, the coach of the Buffalo Bills and former Carolina offensive coordinator, was a free safety at William & Mary, class of ’98. The cradle of coaches…

▪ I don’t follow mixed martial arts, certainly not the way I follow boxing. But I’m curious about Conor McGregor and Cowboy Cerrone on Saturday in UFC 246. McGregor is a tough guy not to watch...

▪ Give Major League Baseball credit. When they finished their sign stealing investigation, they didn’t fool around. They ran the bad guys out of town. The Houston Astros created a culture built on sanctimony and arrogance. They deserve exactly what they got.