New Panther AJ Dillon’s excellent Charlotte adventure: Bojangles, NASCAR and more
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- New Panther Dillon made “AJ’s Charlotte To Do List” after asking for fan suggestions.
- Dillon has visited Bojangles and attended Coke 600 and Truist Championship PGA golf.
- Panthers coach Canales said Dillon brings veteran savvy, experience in multiple roles.
Hundreds of Carolina Panthers have immersed themselves in our community over the years, from raising money for charity to attending concerts to coaching youth sports teams.
For 32 seasons, I’ve watched Panther players come and go — or, more and more frequently, come and stay. But after all of that, I would wager that no one has ever sampled Charlotte’s wares quite as publicly as new Carolina running back AJ Dillon.
Dillon’s quest to sample all the best things the Charlotte area has to offer has been one of my favorite things on social media the past two months. He asked for suggestions from fans on X, made himself what he calls “AJ’s Charlotte To Do List” and has been checking off items, one by one, as he completes them.
First visit to Bojangles? Complete. Attending NASCAR’s Coke 600 and golf’s Truist Championship? Complete.
Still on the list? The Whitewater Center. Carowinds. Local high school football games. And much more, as he keeps sorting through suggestions from people happy to brag about their growing city.
I talked with Dillon about this side quest of his Tuesday after a Panthers practice. He leaned against a wall at Bank of America Stadium and said: “I’ve always been somebody who likes to be deeply rooted in the community… And you really garner that sense of pride when you actually experience things. It’s cool, obviously, to be a Panthers player. But I feel like a little bit when you’re representing all the Carolinas, hey, go ahead! See what the place has to offer. Check out the local fare, if you will.”
Dillon only got to Charlotte in April. He played the first six years of his NFL career with Green Bay (five seasons) and Philadelphia (one), posting 600-plus rushing yards in his three best seasons, all as a Packer. He lives in Charlotte with his wife and their three-year-old son. They have a baby girl on the way, too.
“I was told before I got here from guys like Luke Kuechly (who, like Dillon, went to Boston College) and Jonathan Stewart that it’s a great place to get rooted into,” Dillon said. “Shoot, when football is done, maybe we come back and we live in Charlotte, I don’t know. For now, it’s great to experience it.”
Dillon generally attends events either with his young family or his teammates. He was one of several Panthers players who went to the Coke 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway Sunday. It wasn’t his first NASCAR race, as he’s gone to the Daytona 500, too.
“NASCAR is a sneaky hobby of mine,” Dillon said.
Some of what he’s wanting to experience is food-oriented. He went to Bojangles already but made what he describes as a “rookie mistake.”
“I got a Cajun chicken biscuit,” Dillon said, “and I didn’t know that it came with no sauce. I thought they already had, like, a little secret sauce. And so everybody got on me for that one. All of this is just a learning experience.”
As for the football part of things: Dillon was signed to a one-year deal in a crowded running back room that already features returning starter Chuba Hubbard and promising young players Jonathon Brooks and Trevor Etienne.
The odds of making the team for the player nicknamed “Quadzilla” for the muscularity of his thighs depend on the health of those first three players, as well as how impressive Dillon is over the next few months.
“AJ has got a great opportunity to compete,” Panthers head coach Dave Canales said, “and there’s more than one way to help this team. There’s not just running the ball. There’s pass protection. There’s route running. There’s special teams. These are all things that AJ has had practice and experience in. And so he brings another just veteran player into that room, which is a competitive room…. We’ll see where all that plays out.”
In the meantime, Dillon will keep exploring Charlotte. He is kicking himself for “dragging my feet” as far as getting to a Charlotte Hornets game — he wasn’t able to make one before the season ended.
“So now I really want to go to a Carolina Hurricanes game,” Dillon said, referring to the team and its current playoff run. “I know they have a game Friday (Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals). But it’s kind of far away, and we have practice that day…”
You could almost see the gears in Dillon’s brain as he pondered this.
Was it logistically possible?
How could he get tickets?
Would he be able to get to Raleigh in time?
But even if Dillon didn’t make that event, he knows that many more events await. AJ’s excellent Charlotte adventure is going to be running all summer. Watch out for him — “the bald head is a giveaway,” he said, smiling. Because it’s just a question of where he’s going to show up next.
