Panthers coach Matt Rhule gets screamed at before every game. And he likes it.
As the Carolina Panthers finally get to allow some fans in Bank of America Stadium on Sunday, the families of the team’s coaches and players will also benefit from the more relaxed rules.
Among the 5,200-plus fans in the stadium for the Panthers’ 1 p.m. home game against Arizona will be head coach Matt Rhule’s entire family. It will be the first Panthers’ home-game experience for Rhule’s wife Julie and their two daughters, Vivienne and Leona. Bryant Rhule, the oldest child in the Rhule family, did go to the first home game and served as a ball boy and is expected to do so again Sunday.
Like so many families who care about football, the Rhules have developed some traditions around gameday. I asked Rhule about them Thursday. He mentioned that his father Denny, his son Bryant and Rhule himself always say a pre-game prayer together. And then he told this story about his daughters.
“When I was at Baylor, I had my own private locker room area,” Rhule said. “My daughters would come in and they both would scream at me like, ‘Do your job!’ DO YOUR JOB!!’ And then I’d give them a kiss.”
Both those family traditions have still been occurring, Rhule said, but through FaceTime. Rhule said he will still have to call his daughters to get screamed at during pre-game Sunday, since no outside personnel or family is allowed in the Panthers’ locker room due to COVID-19.
As for “Do your job,” fans of the New England Patriots may recognize the saying -- it’s a well-known Bill Belichick phrase.
▪ Last year the Panthers clobbered Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray, sacking him eight times in a 38-20 Carolina win. However, six of those eight sacks came from players who aren’t playing for Carolina in 2020. The other two came from defensive end Brian Burns and linebacker Shaq Thompson, who had one sack apiece.
▪ I love watching Arizona wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The fact that Fitzgerald is 37 years old and still playing, and playing well, is amazing to me.
Fitzgerald has been in the game for so long that I remember covering him in Charlotte in what was then called the Continental Tire Bowl in 2003.
Fitzgerald had caught at least one touchdown pass for Pittsburgh in an NCAA-record 18 straight games, but the team unwisely used him mostly as a decoy that day in a venue then known as Ericsson Stadium. Once, Pittsburgh got to the 1, took Fitzgerald out and ran the ball four straight times — unsuccessfully. Pittsburgh lost that day to Virginia in the last collegiate game Fitzgerald ever played.
▪ Prediction time. If only I had been in Las Vegas last week — it would have been the rare week to cash in. In this space, I picked the Panthers to break their no-sack streak against the L.A. Chargers by getting two on Justin Herbert — with one of them by Burns. That happened. Then I picked Carolina to upset the Chargers in Los Angeles, and that happened.
So I’m 3-0 picking Carolina games so far this season. This time, though, I don’t foresee a second straight Carolina upset. Murray has gotten a lot better than he was a season ago.
My pick: Arizona 29, Carolina 24.
This story was originally published October 4, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
