Texas Football: Luke Kuechly’s retirement signals a bigger trend

Losing former Texas football linebacker De’Gabriel Floyd due to injury problems could be a trend that linebackers are regularly identifying nowadays.

In what was one of the biggest surprises of the year so far in all of sports, Carolina Panthers star linebacker Luke Kuechly up and retired in an emotional video on Jan. 14. Kuechly retired from the NFL at just 28-years-old, and he’s not the first linebacker to do so at such a young age. This is a trend that is becoming more and more common among football players as the years go by. The Texas football program even experienced that with a true freshman linebacker last year.

Last fall, the Texas Longhorns football program figured out that it would lose the former four-star linebacker recruit and Westlake Village, CA, native De’Gabriel Floyd. Due to a spinal stenosis diagnosis, Floyd retired from football. He might not be confident he would be able to recover to full health and that it could be a recurrent injury.

This trend of linebackers retiring very young doesn’t seem to all be due to preexisting injury problems. Another common young linebacker retirement that is often referred to on this subject is the former San Francisco 49ers rookie standout Chris Borland. Other linebackers that retired from the 49ers at a rather young age seemingly due to injury issues were the stars Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman.

Linebackers is one of the most violent positions in football, so recurrent spinal and concussion issues make sense as to why all these players have concerns about their long-term health. Floyd had these injury problems dating back to his high school football career at Westlake in California.

In the case of Kuechly, his retirement could be due to the lack of direction for the Panthers franchise at the moment and a loss of full motivation to play in the NFL any longer. But injuries are a possible factor for Kuechly’s early retirement that can’t be ignored.

Here’s what Kuechly had to say on the subject in his retirement video.

"It’s a tough decision. I’ve thought about it a lot. I think now is the right chance for me to move on, It makes me sad because I love playing this game, I’ve played it since I was a little kid. It’s my favorite thing in the world to do. The memories I have from this place and this organization and playing on the field with these guys — they’ll never go away."

But the love of the game of football doesn’t look to have faded away for Kuechly. He is reportedly considering a path to coaching football with the Panthers now that his playing days are done.

Similar to the announcement that Floyd would be retiring from football before he would ever suit up for the Longhorns that was heartfelt, Kuechly looked to have the support of his team. Head coach Tom Herman and the Longhorns medical staff had to be patient with a lot of their signees from the 2018 and 2019 recruiting classes.

There were problems from both those signing classes that had importance that carried well beyond the gridiron. For example, to-be redshirt freshman running back Derrian Brown had to sit out all of the 2019 season since he had a scary hospitalization last offseason.

Floyd could still stay involved in football in a coaching role. But all these linebackers retiring early could certainly be a sign of what’s to come. Linebacker is a difficult position to play over the long haul, and injuries can hamper the player’s long-term health on a regular basis.

This retirement trend is clearly something that is having an impact in the realms of both college football and the NFL.