If NFL players don’t like getting hit by Luke Kuechly now, imagine him with a 4-foot metal stick in his hands.
Before Kuechly became the Carolina Panthers’ four-time All-Pro middle linebacker, he was a two-sport athlete at St. Xavier High in Cincinnati. He was a tight end (who later switched to linebacker in perhaps one of the most obvious-in-hindsight coaching moves ever made) for the Bombers. And he played lacrosse.
Kuechly was a faceoff player. He didn’t score much, but he racked up 26 assists during his brief high school lacrosse career, according to MaxPreps.
“Lacrosse was a fun sport, I had a lot of fun playing it growing up,” he said.