Panthers say bond off the field has fed success on it

Denver wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders shared a theory this week of why his Broncos and the Carolina Panthers are the two teams left standing as they prepare to meet in Super Bowl 50.

And it doesn’t so much have to do with stout defenses, the quarterback play or anything of the sort.

“You go back and you look at the Seattle Seahawks. If you go and look at Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor, all those guys, if you look at their Instagram, they’re hanging out after work. They’re always together. They’re taking trips to Hawaii,” Sanders said this week. “I firmly believe that physically, yeah, some teams get to the Super Bowl, but all the teams [that make it] if you go and look at their DNA, they have brothership, family-oriented organizations.

“That’s what we have here. We hang out all the time, we joke, we laugh just like a family, we cry together. We’ve been through a lot. That’s the reason why we’re here too, and if you go and look at the Carolina Panthers you see those guys after games all of them point and [are] doing the dab. They have this brothership, they’re united, and that’s why I think the two best teams from a family-oriented type environment and from a physical standpoint are playing in the Super Bowl.”

Based on their comments this week, the Panthers would likely concur with Sanders’ point.

As the media made the rounds during the team’s interview sessions, player after player would bring up the cohesive bond the Carolina players have established off the field as a key tenet to their success, to their chance at completing an 18-1 season Sunday and going down as one of the NFL’s all-time great teams.

The “Nobody believes in us” mentality has been a staple for the Panthers this season, to whatever degree it’s been warranted as they finished the regular-season with the NFL’s best record and then pummeled the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Championship Game.

And it would easy to dismiss the togetherness angle as a cliche that teams often spout, except for the stories shared and the conviction in the words as the point came up again and again this week.

“I would say it’s rather unique because it’s hard to pull guys together. It’s hard to pull in five and 10 – it’s [especially] hard to pull in 53,” offensive lineman Trai Turner said. “But just everyone in that room, from coaching staff on down, everyone has the same sense of family, everyone has that same sense of culture. And that builds that bond that we have, and that bond ultimately has gotten us to this point. Of course other things have – hard work, dedication, everything plays a part – but I feel like this is the reason we’ve been able to continuously keep going and keep going and keep going no matter what is said, no matter how they try to deter us. We just keep going, and I think that’s just a testament to our bond being so tight nobody’s going to break us.”

Often at the center of that has been quarterback and likely NFL MVP Cam Newton, who routinely plays host for his teammates and their significant others at his home.

Panthers fullback and former Coastal Carolina standout Mike Tolbert described those outings as full of music and video games and “fellowship” among the players and their families.

“As far as team chemistry, we’re always together, whether it be going to dinner or being together going to the mall. We’re always together,” Tolbert said. “We go to Cam’s to hang out all the time. The running backs are always hanging together, and I’m always with the linebackers with Thomas Davis and guys like that. So we’re more than just a football team.”

A reporter jokingly asked if Netwon serves Greek yogurt – a reference to one of his more prominent endorsements – at these shindigs?

“He could get that for free, though,” Tolbert said. “No, it’s a lot of hot wings. We do a lot of ordering pizza and hot wings and stuff like that.

“I think it’s basically just as if we weren’t teammates, we’re friends. And that makes it better for us to play together on the field because I don’t want anything to happen to him that I wouldn’t want to happen to my brother. We’re friends more so than teammates. I can call on these guys if I’m having a bad day at home. Or when my uncle passed, everybody called, everybody texted – not to see how I was doing, but to see how my mom was doing because they know my mom. … We’re actually family and we treat that with the utmost respect.”

Tolbert joked that his mother Secelia Tolbert has become something of the team mom for the Panthers.

“[Whether it’s] Thomas Davis or Cam Newton or Joe Webb or Luke Kuechly or Greg Olsen, if they see her they don’t see me and I’m right next to her. ‘Momma Sece, how you doing, who was the ride up, do you need anything?’ ” Tolbert said. “It’s almost like when you’re playing little league ball and you have a team mom. That’s kind of what she’s become to us.”

In the scope of that family-like fraternity the Panthers have created also comes a strong defense when needed of Newton, their offensive leader and face of the franchise.

As has been well hashed many times, the star quarterback has drawn critiques and criticism over the years for his personality, his end zone celebrations and a variety of other matters totally extraneous to his performance as one of the most exciting players in the NFL.

Tolbert was asked if that bothers his teammates, and of course it does.

“It does because the only thing that people see is what the media reports, and the only thing they see is how they portray him,” Tolbert said. “But when I see him day in and day out for six, seven, eight months straight, I know the guy. I know [Cameron] Jerrell [Newton], I know that guy, the guy that came from College Park, Ga., that is a light in every room. But people don’t see it that way because he’s not being portrayed publicly like that. But the more you all see him, the more you’ll get to know him.”

On a lighter note, Turner shared another of the off-the-field activities some of the Panthers regularly partake in together – weekly pedicures.

“It’s pretty funny. … They know our faces. When [we] first got there it was probably some, ‘Oh wow, those are some big fellas,’ ” Turner said.

Tolbert is a regular, Turner said, while he joins in from time to time. He’s seen as many as six or seven teammates there together.

“On Fridays, I go with him from time to time, he likes to get his feet done, he likes to get a pedicure. I don’t go with him every week, but sometimes you have to treat yourself. You have to treat your feet good – you work hard with them,” Turner said. “So we’ll go get pedicures and just be sitting there, other people are listening to us talking and they’re like, ‘How long have you guys known each other?’ ‘Oh, just two years.’ But there’s that bond. You’re around these guys 24-7 – literally 24-7. So you know their wives, their girlfriends, their kids. I think it’s overlooked so much because it’s football, football, football.”

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Panthers say bond off the field has fed success on it."