It’s not often you see all 53 Carolina Panthers in the same place at the same time outside of Bank of America Stadium.
Certainly not wearing the same t-shirt.
It’s even less often that you see a hedge fund billionaire in blue jeans joking and laughing with a 315-pound defensive tackle.
But such was the case at the Second Harvest Food Bank Monday morning, less than 24 hours after securing their second victory of the season, as the entire roster – including players on injured reserve such as Da’Norris Searcy and players suspended for the first four games of the season like Thomas Davis – helped owner David Tepper to pack 1,500 emergency food boxes filled with nonperishable items that will be shipped throughout the Carolinas in the wake of Hurricane Florence.
The team, as well as Week 2 opponent Cincinnati Bengals and over a dozen college programs around the region wore ‘One Carolina’ stickers on the back of their helmets over the weekend to help show solidarity and spread awareness of victims of Hurricane Florence, which brought as much as 40 inches of rain in some areas and led to the evacuation of more than 1 million people throughout North and South Carolina.
“People are in need and it’s important for all of us to serve and work together as a team to help our region,” said owner David Tepper, who packed boxes next to practice squad defensive tackle Kendrick Norton in blue jeans and his ever-present Carolina Panthers cap. “Natural disasters have a way of bringing communities together and we want to do our part to help the Carolinas rebuild. These emergency food packs will hopefully provide some temporary relief.”
The David Tepper Charitable Foundation, Inc. will ultimately donate 25,000 such packs to regional food banks, which are equal to about $450,000 in addition to the $1m in aid to the American Red Cross that will be primarily directed to help fund it’s financial assistance program in the Carolinas that provides people in shelters with stipends and gift cards to help them transition back to their lives.
“It’s a lot of fun coming out here and being able to help in even a small way,” said Ryan Kalil. “Second Harvest Food Bank, I’ve been here before and worked with these guys, and they’re incredible. What they’re doing for the hurricane relief – this is essentially the hub for all the distribution areas affected by the hurricane. It’s great for our teammates to come out here and have an impact and help out.”
While this was a great event and it’s unusual to see the entire team together – Kalil said that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen all 53 men together outside of the stadium – there are many players in the locker room who spend their off days helping the needy, be it the Cam Newton Foundation or CJ Anderson’s Dream Never Die Foundation or Fozzy’s Future Heroes or even the newly established ‘Julius Peppers Hurricane Relief Fund’ in conjunction with the Foundation For The Carolinas that the future Hall of Famer pledged $100,000 towards.
“It’s a great thing that we all could be out here and be a part of this,” said Julius Peppers. “That’s just the kind of guy [Tepper] is – he wants to be very involved and part of the community, so I think this is a great thing that we’re doing that he spearheaded.”
“It’s an inspiring thing that he’s doing, bringing us all together and hopefully it will inspire some guys to get out and do more in the community.”
Of course, when you get a football team together doing any sort of activity, they’re going to turn it into a competition, with the boxes being split into two lines and being put together assembly line style; the empties were pulled from a palette and folded before being taped and then handed down the line to be filled – Cam Newton, wearing one of his signature hats, waited at the end of one line and Mario Addison, singing and dancing along to the music that was being provided by DJ Vinny, waited at the other to stack the full boxes onto palettes.
Christian McCaffrey began the day taping boxes, but when it was clear that he wasn’t fast enough, he was joined by Greg Olsen, who applied tape with the same efficiency he runs routes, stretches or does anything else; when his tape gun ran dry, he held it straight up in the air – “Tape! I need more tape!”
Greg Olsen tapes boxes with the precision he stretches before games. pic.twitter.com/VMFVxBCyim
— The Riot Report (@RRiotReport) September 24, 2018
In the thirty minutes or so of box packing we saw, Kalil’s line jumped out to an early lead, although Devin Funchess implored us to “wait for the fourth quarter.”
“Christian was a little slow – I think it was the first time he’s ever been told he was slow – it was slowing us down our line,” joked Kalil. “To be efficient, we had to be a little critical of some guys – it’s working out; we’re a whole palette ahead on my side, it’s not a surprise. On Mr. Tepper’s side, he needs to pick it up – my guys are coachable. That’s the difference.”
Julius Peppers, who was also on the winning assembly team, was a little bit more forgiving of the poor taping skills displayed by the back who put up the fourth-highest rushing total in franchise history against the Bengals the day before.
“He’s probably a little beat up from yesterday, so we’ll let him slide.”
For more information and to donate to help victims of Hurricane Florence, check out the #CAREolinas website or Second Harvest Food Bank.
