‘Chirping’ brothers, rugby and ‘manwiches’: Growing up as Panthers’ Monroe Freeling
Spend 15 minutes with the four Freeling brothers and their parents, and you could imagine what it was like growing up in that household:
Constant “chirping” — as in trash-talking.
Unrelenting competition.
And food.
Lots of food.
“We shopped at Costco because it was just bulk everything,” Brandy Freeling, the boys’ mother, said Friday.
She was smiling ear-to-ear by that point, a few minutes after Monroe Freeling, at 21 years old the third-oldest of the four siblings, officially introduced himself to the Carolina Panthers’ local media and fan base at a news conference. Monroe, the 6-foot-7, 315-pound smiley tackle, was drafted Thursday with the 19th overall pick.
Friday, after walking through a sea of Carolina blue-wearing fans and getting initiated with the Keep Pounding drum tradition earlier in the day, he and his brothers and his parents were telling stories about the Freeling home.
And, naturally, Brandy recalled the routinely borderline-chaotic scene at the breakfast table.
“They were fighting over food,” Brandy said. “’No, I get the last one! Is there anything left?’ There was that. ... I made these things I called ‘Manwiches.’ It was a bagel with two eggs and two sausage patties. And they would have that almost every day or at least several times a week.”
One each?
“Sometimes two,” Brandy said. She said she later had to start making breakfast burritos instead as the boys got older so she could just make a mound of sausage and eggs and parse out the meal sizes as needed.
“Costco or Sam’s Club, those big bags of chicken?” Mike, Monroe’s father, chimed in. “That was one meal in our house.”
Brandy shrugged and smiled: “We’d probably go through 10 eggs a day.”
It’s hard to tell at which point in their lives the two Freeling parents were reflecting on when recalling these stories. It could’ve been when the boys were teenagers. Or, honestly, it could’ve been yesterday — with Bridger (26), Tristan (24) and Grayson (19) bashing on Monroe’s still-developing golf game, or teasing Monroe for the fact that he didn’t win any high school state championships at Oceanside Collegiate Academy in Mount Pleasant, S.C., or harshly judging Monroe’s cooking ability.
How Monroe (21) himself put it, when asked what it was like growing up Freeling:
“My mom’s been saying it all day: It was like a frat house,” Monroe said. He wore a gray plaid jacket with a light blue polo and a newly broken in Carolina Panthers flat-bill hat. “Just chirps all the time. Bullying all the time. They say them bullying me is what got me here. They’re still going to claim that. Like, ‘Yeah, we did this.’
“But nah, it was an awesome household. Competition. I mean, we’ll probably go back whenever I go back home and hop back on PGA (the video game) or something, compete on that. Or golf. I’m gonna catch up. My brother thinks I have a long time before I catch up. But I’m going to. He has no idea.”
A family tall tale about Monroe Freeling
If it’s one thing that unites all four of the Freeling brothers — outside the fact that they were all born in Oregon before the family moved to South Carolina in 2016 — it is that they are all athletes.
Standout ones.
Grayson, the youngest, won two state championships on Oceanside Collegiate’s football team, for instance. Tristan, the second oldest, played basketball at Queens University of Charlotte from 2020-22.
But one thing that separates Monroe from his brothers?
The fact that he’s 6-foot-7 — his brothers, respectfully, are in the 6-foot to 6-2 range ... and are not bitter about it at all.
“We like to say he had a twin in the womb,” Grayson said, citing a family tall tale. “And he ate him. That’s just what we say. Because, I mean, look at me, I’m the youngest and the shortest. I got the short end of the stick, literally.”
He added: “But no, he’s an anomaly. He’s a freak athlete. And he’s the hardest worker I know.”
The freak athlete part is well-known. Freeling isn’t merely touted for his size and strength. He was among the most athletic offensive tackles in the draft this year; he ran a 4.93-second 40-yard dash and added a vertical jump of 33.5 inches. His athleticism is what head coach Dave Canales and general manager Dan Morgan first saw in him, too, as they said on Thursday evening. It doesn’t hurt he’s developed great technique as well: According to Pro Football Focus, he graded out as the 10th best pass-blocker in the country.
Take it from Kirby Smart, his head coach at Georgia who was effusive about Monroe at Georgia’s pro day last month.
“His flexibility is off the charts,” Smart said. “His muscle mass for his size — he’s got really low body fat. I don’t think he’s reached his full potential. Some of our guys have gotten really good over four to five years; he’s been here three years, and he still has tremendous upside. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of Monroe all the way yet. He’s going to be a 10-, 15-year pro.”
Mike Freeling tried to get his boys into rugby
The parents, to be clear, were no slouches themselves athletically. Both grew up playing sports and were quite good at them.
“I grew up in South Africa, so the sports that I played were rugby and cricket, so I couldn’t teach them a damn thing about any sport in the U.S.,” said Mike, who now works as an anesthesiologist. “Fortunately for us, their mother was an all-state basketball player in high school ...“
“I wasn’t all-state,” Brandy interjected. “But I was a basketball player. I did tall-girl sports, for sure.”
Mike later added that he couldn’t successfully get his kids to embrace rugby: “I loved that sport. I figured if you really wanted to learn how to tackle, that’s the sport to play. There’s a reason Pete Carroll adopted that strategy up in Seattle with the Seahawks. Very unsuccessful. But I did try.”
One thing that did breakthrough from the parents? Yoga. Brandy teaches yoga part-time, along with other work, and even got Monroe to follow suit. Monroe spoke about how it has helped his flexibility, balance and strength ahead of the Sugar Bowl this past season. He even got a few offensive line teammates to do yoga with him a few times.
Yoga is one of his favorite pastimes — that, and, as he said Friday with a healthy dose of self-awareness, speaking on his golf game again: “Yeah, sometimes I like to just donate golf balls to the water.”
What else Monroe Freeling will bring to Panthers, Charlotte
There’s so much more to Freeling’s story that the Panthers fan base will soon learn.
That includes the stories behind the backboard-rattling dunks and blocks on the basketball court. That includes the vicious blocks he’s levied on his SEC opponents — including an agreed-upon best block by the family, a duo block against Ole Miss which required him hunting down a linebacker and lighting him up.
That includes his mentality — of being an “apprentice” here with the Panthers but also one who will be competing for a starting role in training camp. Freeling, after all, might be immediately in contention for the role: Starting left tackle Ikem Ekwonu ruptured his patellar tendon in his right knee in January and might miss a bulk of 2026. Starting right tackle Taylor Moton is 32 years old and under contract here through 2027. Rasheed Walker, though a highly touted free-agent acquisition, is only signed for one year and could theoretically be a reserve swing tackle as Freeling gets NFL reps as a rookie.
That includes his ability to be durable and resilient after injury — including an October 2025 ankle injury and shoulder surgery a few months ago. That includes the heaps of praise he’s gotten since being drafted by the front office: “He was the best player on our board,” Morgan said Thursday evening.
But it also includes the family who always keeps his ego in check — a pair of soft-spoken parents and a squad of unrelentingly competitive brothers who playfully bash on Monroe and each other whenever they can.
Oh, it includes his cooking, too.
A lot can be traced back to food in the Freeling household, after all. That and ... well ... chirping.
“We’re pretty harsh critics, I’d say,” Tristan said, when asked about what he actually felt about Monroe’s cheesesteaks. “That’s one of his better meals. Occasionally he could throw together a pretty mid (aka bad) pasta. And that’s going to be rated down toward like the 5s.”
That’s the Freeling family — never letting their offensive lineman-of-a-third-born-sibling getting a big head.
On Thursday, the night he was drafted, the South Carolina kid said he was happy to be home.
On Friday, Monroe Freeling brought his home with him to Bank of America Stadium.
And offered a glimpse of how fun this all could be.
