CANTON, Ohio — No one feels the legacy of linebacker play in Carolina quite like the first family of that legacy.

And that's why the sons of Panthers legend and Hall of Famer Sam Mills wouldn't be anywhere other than Canton to see Luke Kuechly enshrined this weekend.

"It means a lot," his son Marcus Mills beamed when asked about going back to the Hall four years after his father was enshrined in the Class of 2022. "You've got to understand, I grew up always around great linebackers and great linebacker corps, and Luke was just the next iteration of that.

"He was clearly the one who was going to carry the torch to be the next great linebacker that I've been around, that I've had the opportunity to watch play. Instantly you could tell that Luke was the guy. He was going to be a Hall of Famer. He was going to be one of the best linebackers of all time."

Marcus, who still lives in Charlotte, met Kuechly for the first time when he literally ran into him at Bank of America Stadium, and realized that for all his stardom, he was still a regular-looking human being, who happened to be approachable in a way that every human being is not.

"He stands out because he doesn't look like a linebacker; he doesn't look like a football player, right? So it makes him stand out more in a football facility," Marcus laughed. "He looks like an in-shape investment banker. And then you meet him, and he's just, I mean, he's just the nicest guy ever."

That gave Marcus a familiar feeling.

"I just ran into him, and he didn't know who I was or didn't know who my family was," Marcus laughed. "He just stopped, and we just chatted for 10 minutes, and I had to break up the conversation because he was just happy to make a new friend, right? He's just that type of guy.

"He reminds me of my father a lot, more even off the field than even his on-the-field heroics."

The namesake of that hero also saw it, and he had a first-hand view.

Sam Mills III was an assistant coach with the Panthers for the duration of Kuechly's career, and said it didn't take long to see those similarities and recognize that Kuechly had the chance to join his father in Canton one day.

"I saw the work every day; I see the seriousness," Mills III said. "Two things stood out. One was walkthroughs. To watch him in a walkthrough, and the seriousness of him getting in a stance and how he's looking at gaps and how he's communicating. And then the other thing that stood out to me was when the meetings were over, and it was time for guys to go home, he'd go right back in the film room and get to work. He's doing more work, and he's studying his opponent more and more.

"So what happens is he starts making plays, and there's things he did that were like, 'Oh wow,' or 'That was amazing,' or 'Wow, did you see him read out of this blitz and go find the ball because he knew this certain play was coming?' And then, so by the time he got to be defensive player of the year, it was like, 'Well, yeah, who's better than him?' He's supposed to because he puts in all of this work. It was nothing surprising because you got to see him every day earn who he became."

Mills III knew what that looked like, because he experienced it as a child, knowing Dad was going to be working late on certain nights because he prepared the same way — encyclopedically. He experienced it differently as a teenager (he was 18 when his father made his final Pro Bowl in 1996), but when he looks at the clips now as a coach (he's the defensive line coach at UAB), he sees it.

But he recalled a conversation with his mother Melanie early in Kuechly's career.

"Because my mom knows football, right?" the son said proudly, "And she's like, 'Is this legit? Is this real?'  And I told her one day, I said, up close and personal, this is the closest thing I've ever seen to Dad. He is legit 100 percent, and it is genuine. It's not a fake. It's not a fraud.

"I've seen him on the field. I've seen him with his teammates. I've seen him out in public with people, and it is 100 percent genuine."

Mills' legacy of character is reminiscent of the stories being told about Kuechly now, because the entire premise of the Keep Pounding speech wasn't just about overcoming adversity; it was about doing it selflessly for the man next to you.

So when Sam III talked to Kuechly about his father's place in the foundational history of the franchise, it dawned on him that if his father and Kuechly had ever been together, it would have been an incredible defense regardless of who else was on it.

"It actually would have been scary to see them working together, because a bunch of people would have had to raise their level," Mills III said. "We talked about how this place has been gifted with linebackers, from Dad to Dan Morgan and Will Witherspoon and Mark Fields, and then Jon Beason and Thomas Davis, and now you're here.

"I told him the way you're doing it is amazing. And the beauty of Luke is he's not conceited. He thinks of others, and he appreciates the history of the game, so you're not going to get a lot of, well, I'm going to be the best or anything like that. You're getting, 'Well, gee golly, I hope I can work hard enough to be considered in that group.' That's what you get from him. And it's real."

That kind of grounding was also something the Mills brothers were used to. Marcus remembered seeing clips of his father talking to a kid on the sidelines at the Pro Bowl, asking him about his day, how things were going, letting him know he was important.

And as he's watched Kuechly over the years, he sees the same qualities.

"I mean, I don't think you have to have too many conversations to understand that Luke Kuechly reminds you of Sam Mills; It goes without saying, right?" Marcus said. "They're both two completely different people on the field than they are off the field. You wonder how a person so nice can be so violent on the field that they're able to turn it off.

"They're both teachers at heart. They both care about people. Deep in their core, they care about people in their communities. I see a lot of that in Luke. Luke is the type of guy who is just exactly the same every day. . . .

"I'm not sure what my father would say to Luke if they had the opportunity to talk, but I do know they would be peers, right? To talk to someone at your own level, it would be a very interesting conversation because they're peers, in football, to the level that they're able to discuss the game and how they see the game, which you don't run across a lot when you're at a high level, mentally in the game. But also how they see family and community, and they see their private life and legacy and what you should contribute. They're peers in that.

"It would be a great conversation to be a part of, to see the give and take because they're both people who love to listen and gain but also love to give back as well. So that would be something that would be awesome to witness."

Panthers fans got to witness the closest thing to it over the course of 30 years by watching a pair of incredible players and incredible people who created a legacy — and then extended it.