{"id":733284,"date":"2026-02-06T11:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/733284\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T11:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:17:14","slug":"luke-kuechly-elected-to-pro-football-hall-of-fame-class-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/733284\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Kuechly elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI (ENQUIRER) – Former Carolina Panthers great Luke Kuechly<\/a>, a Cincinnati native who starred at St. Xavier High School, was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame\u2019s class of 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The class was revealed during the NFL Honors show in San Francisco. Receiver Larry Fitzgerald, kicker Adam Vinatieri, running back Roger Craig and quarterback Drew Brees also were elected.<\/p>\n

Kuechly was one of 15 modern-era player finalists for the 2026 class, along with former Bengals offensive tackle Willie Anderson. Both were denied one year ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson was one of five finalists<\/a> named among contributors, coaches and senior players who last played at least 25 years ago. Craig was elected from that group.<\/p>\n

Neither of the former Bengals were elected.<\/p>\n

Modern-era players require a minimum positive vote of 80 percent.<\/p>\n

The Panthers removed from circulation Kuechly\u2019s No. 59, which he wore throughout his eight seasons as a player for the team before announcing his retirement in Jan. 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kuechly was among 2021 St. Xavier Athletic Hall of Fame inductees.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Cincinnati Enquirer. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI (ENQUIRER) – Former Carolina Panthers great Luke Kuechly, a Cincinnati native who starred at St. Xavier High…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[11591,235,260,2567,227,256,73964,13189,7,13502,19125,23715,5746,7367,122,88,6,236,1371,44459,1161,12643,13501],"class_list":["post-733284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carolina-panthers","tag-adam-vinatieri","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-carolinapanthers","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnati-native","tag-drew-brees","tag-football","tag-fox19","tag-hall-of-famer","tag-ken-anderson","tag-larry-fitzgerald","tag-legend","tag-national-football-league","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-panthers","tag-pro-football-hall-of-fame","tag-roger-craig","tag-san-francisco","tag-st-xavier-high-school","tag-wxix"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116023410480299868","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}