Panthers receiver DJ Moore set to quietly take his local legend status back to Philly

Carolina Panthers receiver DJ Moore’s teammates think he’s kind of quiet.

Quarterback Cam Newton nicknamed him “Sleepy” in the spring, when Moore arrived for organized team activities.

“He said I always looked half asleep,” Moore said, laughing, on Thursday. “(I) just stay smiling, and don’t really say too much. ... I don’t show emotion too often. Just staying even-keel, that’s my thing.”

The Panthers’ first round pick isn’t flashy. His bling is an Apple watch.

His big NFL player purchase? A puppy he named Denny — after himself. The “D” in “DJ” is for “Denniston,” so Denny is the third in the line of that name.

HIs announcement that he was headed to the NFL after just three years at Maryland came in the office of his high school athletics director — no microphones, no cameras.

“He’s quiet,” Newton said this week, of Moore’s personality.

Then he laughed. What else was there to say?

But do Moore’s Panthers teammates know he’s a North Philadelphia legend?

He can throw a football over the mountains. Punt and kick a country mile. Knock a safety into a greeting with his grandkids and keep on rollin’.

And he was on the honor roll four years straight?! Sheesh. Didn’t they hear?

Most impressive of all, perhaps, is that Moore could arrive at Lincoln Financial Field, where the Panthers visit Philadelphia on Sunday, and convince at least a few members of the Eagles’ “passionate” fan base to root against the home team.

Where it all began

Imhotep Charter in North Philadelphia, is a consistent football presence with prodigious talent. College coaches flock there on Friday nights.

But Moore was the catalyst. He’s the first Imhotep player to make it to the NFL, after the Panthers selected him No. 24 overall in May. His No. 23 jersey was the first the football program ever retired.

The football team practices on the sparse field of a shared sports complex two blocks from the school. The field gets muddy at the slightest hint of rain.

The Imhotep Panthers don’t have a locker room. Instead, they change into their clothes and pads in an old baseball dugout adjacent to the field. And they have to cut practices short whenever the Northwest Raiders need the field. The Raiders are the four-time national Pop Warner champions, so their practices take precedence.

“Oh yeah, that’s their whole facility,” Moore laughed.

Imhotep players don’t have athletic lockers, so they carry their pads with them in large red bags, from class to class and all over Philadelphia. Some players take a couple of city buses and the subway, gear in tow, to get back and forth from school and practice.

“I’m standing on the practice field right now, and we have no lines, muddy field,” Imhotep head coach Nick Lincoln said by telephone this week. “There’s a little bit of grit and grind to what we do here. That’s part of the fraternity, the brotherhood.

“If you come here, you expect to be great. But you’re going to have to work a lot.”

A young talent

Those surroundings could keep even the city’s biggest star humble, but Moore needed no help in that department. If it weren’t for the fact that everybody already knew who he was, nobody would.

“You could see it as early as ninth grade, 10th grade, he just had that ‘it’ factor,” said Lincoln. “He never missed anything. He did everything right. He was quiet, a humble kid. But he was talented.”

There was just no way Moore could stay under the radar. He spent his childhood ruining the self-esteem of Pop Warner football players across the city. Lincoln had heard about him long before he set foot on campus. So had dozens of other coaches around Philadelphia.

But Lincoln ultimately got Moore on his roster. And he wasn’t going to waste Moore’s talent.

Moore caught the ball, from every receiver position. He played running back. He threw the ball. He got involved in nearly every trick play imaginable.

He could play safety and linebacker. Penn State liked him at safety so much, in fact, that they recruited him to play the position. Whoops.

“I mean the kid could’ve played quarterback in high school, he could’ve played running back,” Lincoln said. “He could’ve played free safety. ... I mean, he really could’ve played anywhere on the field except maybe offensive line.

“But he probably would’ve done it if we’d asked.”

In fact, Moore was the team’s kicker during his freshman year. When he was promoted to offense his sophomore year, he still kicked field goals and point-after attempts, even after scoring a touchdown on the prior play. He also punted.

Staying humble

Moore had 82 catches for 2,056 yards and a 32 touchdowns in three seasons as a full-time receiver, a Philadelphia Public League record.

But Moore didn’t change, staying even-keeled, quiet and without pomp or flash. Win or lose, all he wanted to do was hang out with his family, especially his mother, Cookie. She used to take tickets before every Imhotep game, even after Moore left for Maryland.

“His family has just been so connected to our community,” said Andre Noble, Imhotep’s athletic director, who has known Moore since he was 14.

Moore announced he was leaving Maryland a year early for the NFL in Noble’s office, to Noble and his football coaches and without any formal press conference. And he visits Imhotep each time he’s in Philadelphia. It’s not because anyone asks him to do so.

But that connectedness is part of what makes the people in North Philadelphia so fond of Moore.

“He’s just a super, shining example of what we want our graduates to look like as a person,” Noble said.

He’s a local legend to many, but to those who know him, Moore is the same family-oriented, quiet, kind kid they’ve known since he was 14. And he spends his free time showing love to the people who helped raise him.

“We have to get used to him being a celebrity,” laughed Noble, who will attend Sunday’s game with Cookie and many others. “He’s more like a family member (to the city) than a celebrity ...

“We may be in the minority (at the game) because obviously there will be all the Eagles fans. But I’ve got a feeling that a lot of people at 21st Street and Godfrey (where Imhotep is located) are not going to be Eagles fans this week.”

A real-life ‘Boobie Miles’

Carolina linebacker Jermaine Carter Jr., a former Maryland teammate of Moore’s, might be his only current teammate who really knows his status as a Philadelphia legend.

And Moore was kind of a big deal at Maryland, too. He had 80 catches for 1,033 yards and eight touchdowns as a junior, and every team the Terrapins played formulated a plan to contain him. Usually it didn’t work.

“Everyone knew he was getting the ball and he still was that good,” Noble said.

Moore became notable for his ability to create extra yards after the catch, even through heavy contact.

But he did everything else, too.

Carter saw Moore run the ball. He saw him punt.

He saw him throw it, on a trick play in which Moore overthrew the intended target by 10 yards — even though the receiver was already 60 yards downfield, by Carter’s own estimation.

“’And he can pass!’” Carter laughed, quoting the character James Miles Sr. from the move “Friday Night Lights.”

“He’s a real-life ‘Boobie Miles’ type of guy. Just special.”

Receiver Devin Funchess accepts that comparison.

“I mean, look at him,” he said this week. “Look at him with the ball. When you see him with the ball ... I’ve been with a couple special players. When he gets the ball ... nobody can tackle him. That’s amazing for me to see.”

‘Something you can’t measure’

Last Sunday, Moore messed up. There’s no way to sugar-coat it.

He fumbled twice in three touches, once on a punt return and again on a carry, during which the ball was punched out by Washington corner Josh Norman.

Even folk heroes are human sometimes.

Head coach Ron Rivera sent Moore back on the field, and Moore proceeded to have the best game of his young NFL career with 77 yards on five touches and plenty of yards after the catch.

In fact, Moore’s stats propelled him to a No. 2 NFL ranking among receivers in yards after the catch, with 10.2 per reception.

But it wasn’t the catches that were so memorable, or that he was running so well with it after the catch. The Panthers expect that from Moore by now.

It was the way he was doing it. He cut his forehead on one run, but kept rumbling forward.

Sappier sportswriters might say he ran like he wanted to be redeemed.

He scrapped for those yards. And his teammates took notice.

“I think when he’s doing those things, you’re gaining the respect of the guys in the locker room,” said Carter. “Just showing them that you’re going to go to battle with them and they can trust you no matter what, even when you go through tough times or have adversity.”

Lincoln said the way Moore played after his mistakes on Sunday was just a little Philly coming out of him. A little bit of Imhotep Charter.

“He’s got a purpose, and I think that’s just Philly in general,” Lincoln said. “All of these guys out of Philly have something you can’t measure, you can’t time. I think it’s just the city in general, the grit of it. The attitude. They just bring it to the football field.

“That’s just DJ. That’s perseverance. That’s our school, that’s the nature of where he’s from.”

And maybe, Lincoln said, where he could be going.

“Honestly, I think he’s going to be in the Hall of Fame,” Lincoln said. “He’s that type of kid.

‘I think the Panthers got a franchise receiver.”

This story was originally published October 19, 2018 at 7:00 AM.