CANTON, Ohio — The family was back together.

And Luke Kuechly now has his gold jacket, thanks to a former teammate, the only choice really to make it official.

There were plenty of friends and family on hand when Kuechly was welcomed to the club at Friday night's Gold Jacket Dinner. His grandmothers were up there on stage with him, along with his parents, his brothers and his girlfriend. There was only really one person missing.

But before Kuechly was even given that particular outer garment, he was wrapped up by his people. Former teammates including Cam Newton, Greg Olsen, Ryan Kalil, Jonathan Stewart, JJ Jansen, and more gathered around him during the dinner portion of the event at the Canton Civic Center.

By the end of the night, he was there with his four new teammates — Larry Fitzgerald, Drew Brees, Adam Vinatieri, and Roger Craig.

But for the main event, one of the biggest names in franchise history was there to share the spotlight.

Defensive end Julius Peppers, Hall of Famer No. 377, who was also there when Kuechly executed his own reverse-knock to learn that he was a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was the only appropriate choice to put the jacket on No. 386.

And with that, Luke Kuechly belonged. (Although that was obvious long before Friday night.)

"One of the things I tell people about him who ask me about him, it's almost like Luke doesn't realize how good he is," Peppers said. "I mean, he's in the club now, so we're going to celebrate him how he's supposed to. And that's the key because he definitely deserves it."

Kuechly said that it would still be as special if one of the legendary linebackers in attendance this weekend had done the honors for either the knock or the jacket, but seeing Peppers brought it home for him.

The late Sam Mills would have been proud, especially when the fans in attendance began an unprompted "Keep Pounding" chant as Kuechly walked the gauntlet of Hall of Famers, 120 of whom were in attendance Friday night (it took emcee Dan Fouts 42 minutes to introduce them all).

But as Kuechly took the stage, surrounded by the ones he loved the most and the one he looked up to, it became emotional.

"That it was Pep to me is super cool because he's Julius Peppers," Kuechly said earlier this year. "Playing in Carolina when I got drafted, there were pictures, and there's always like this aura and like a legend of Julius Peppers. And you see highlights, and you see him at Chapel Hill, and then you see him picking passes off, and you see him running down Michael Vick.

"I told Pep, there's this picture that was in the hallway there. A Pep in a white jersey, holding a football with his visor on, just such a prototypical picture. And I told him, 'Hey man, I always wanted to meet that guy, and then to have the opportunity to play with him his last two years, and then for him to be at the house was super cool because I got to play with him, which was awesome."

Pep is part of the family now. In more ways than one.

While Peppers was coming down the stretch of his Hall of Fame career when he retired in 2017 and 2018, he said he saw similarities to Kuechly immediately.

"Not to make it about me, but I see him, and we have a lot of similarities when it comes to that teammate part," Peppers said. "Just trying to be one of the guys, trying to be a great teammate, trying to be a leader, doing things the right way, being very professional and stuff like that.

"So that's what I saw in him, and that's what I really admired about him more than all the great things he did on the field, right?"

When Peppers was with the Packers in 2014, they caught the Panthers in a rough patch, and he sensed some of his teammates didn't take it as seriously as they needed to.

"The record wasn't that great, you know, but they were playing good football," Peppers said. "And a lot of guys wanted to kind of overlook the fact that we were playing the Panthers, and me knowing these guys, knowing that it's going to be frustrating because it doesn't matter what the record says about them. These guys are great football players, and It's going to be hard to do things against them.

"I knew that, but my teammates didn't know that. So, it's frustrating from that standpoint, but to be a teammate with them is just very calming and very relaxing, because the people that you're out on the field with are going to do their job. They're going to be accountable."

So for Peppers, being there for Kuechly at the beginning and the end of Kuechly's Hall of Fame journey was even more meaningful.

Peppers had two of the all-time greats do this for him. All-time sack leader Bruce Smith (Peppers is fourth on the list) knocked on his door, and Steelers legend "Mean" Joe Greene put the jacket on him.

Those two were legendary, and meant a lot to everyone in the game.

But they weren't teammates.

"I had teammates, and I knew people, but there was nobody that was from the Panthers that I could call on, or that would have been there," Peppers said. "So I thought it was only right for me to be there for him because I think I'm one of the only connections that he may have in the Hall already.

"It meant a lot to me too, man. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole process, seeing him go through the process and then seeing him up on that stage and getting a jacket."

And being the one to put it on his shoulders just brought it all back home.