Shaquille Leonard stands at the podium in the media room in Lucas Oil Stadium, facing cameras and reporters as he'd done so many times before.
But this time, the NFL linebacker wasn't in uniform. He wasn't speaking at a postgame press conference and he wasn't talking about a football game.
Instead, Leonard was wearing jeans, boots and a cowboy hat. His family sat in the front row – next to his former teammates Kenny Moore II and Anthony Walker Jr., both wearing Leonard's jersey – and Leonard was talking about his life.
"First of all, like always, want to thank Jim Irsay and the Irsay family for just giving me the opportunity to –" Leonard opens, before pausing to clear his throat and collect himself, his voice already wavering. Just a few hours remained before Leonard would officially retire as a member of the Colts, and reality was hitting.
"To play the game," he says after about 10 seconds. "To play the game at the highest level, give me the opportunity to just be me."
Leonard's career with the Colts, spanning from 2018 to 2023, was the perfect example of the kind of man Leonard was. He was known for his physicality and fierceness on the field, earning the nickname "The Maniac" as his punchouts and tackles were second to none. Leonard retires with a plethora of awards to his name, including three First-Team All-Pro awards and AP Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2018.
Each year he played, Leonard kept building on his past success as his name became one the entire NFL knew. When the Colts drafted Leonard, though, they caught criticism all across social media questioning what general Chris Ballard was thinking.
But Ballard knew what he was doing, and that criticism fueled Leonard to become the player he was.
"If I didn't take things as personal as I did, I definitely wouldn't be where I'm at today," Leonard said. "Because once you get it in your mind that somebody is doubting you, or somebody is waiting for you to fail, it gives you that urge to keep going, to push yourself."
Leonard didn't just push himself to be a standout football player, either: he pushed himself to be a standout person. The Lakeview, S.C. native dedicated himself to helping both his hometown and his community in Indianapolis, hosting food drives, creating his own Maniac Foundation and continually voicing strong support for the Colts' Kicking the Stigma mental health initiative. He was the Colts Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee in 2022 and spent hours making sure he was doing everything he could to help those around him.
"I want to be remembered as someone who put the team before himself," Leonard said. "No matter what, I played the game with absolutely nothing but excitement, full of energy...I just want to be remembered as someone who put their best foot forward and just gave absolutely everything they have to this game.
"Football is just what I did. But who I am as a human being, I'm a giver."
Now, Leonard has dedicated himself to serving on on the football coaching staff at his former high school, Lakeview High School, as he continues to give back. That was how Leonard rediscovered his love for the game, after sustaining injury after injury that eventually led to his decision to stop playing football.
"I fell in love with coaching at my high school, I fell in love with the process of making somebody else better, making these kids better, and giving them a role model they can look up to," Leonard said. "And they got dreams just like I had dreams at that level. And just to be back there and to pour out every inch of knowledge that I have in them, there's no better feeling that seeing those kids grow up. That's when I kind of knew that it was the right move for me."
Leonard's team represents him, he said, with a defense full of smaller underdogs – Leonard was seen as undersized at 6-foot-2 and 237 pounds – and that's just another reason why he can inspire the next generation of kids just like him.
"It's never the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog," Leonard said. "And just to be back and to have that Lakeview way, to show the kids that and be there to help them on their way...just give them the opportunity to play this game at the highest level. It's fun. It's just fun to go out there and be there for the kids."
And it's not just kids who Leonard continues to inspire; Zaire Franklin and DeForest Buckner are among the current Colts players to recognize Leonard's impact on them and the organization earlier this week.
It's a two-way street, after all. Leonard loves the Colts and the Colts love Leonard.
"He truly embodied our organization's mission statement, which is to entertain, inspire and unite by winning the right way," Colts Vice Chair/Owner Kalen Jackson said Sunday morning. "And that was both on and off the field...I could probably spend hours talking about the impact he made on this community that's still lasting."
That's ultimately why Leonard has decided to retire as a member of the Indianapolis Colts.
"This organization, this community, they gave me absolutely everything I wished for," Leonard said. "There's no Shaq Leonard without the Indianapolis Colts. I knew that whenever I walked away, I wanted to walk away as a horseshoe member, and that's the only way I wanted to go."
