The Panthers held their first padded practice of training camp on Monday and it came with a bit of fireworks. Every coach wants to see an elevated level of intensity when the pads come on, but when players blur the lines between enemy and teammate, then maybe there needs to be some pulling back.
At the end of a running play, running back Chuba Hubbard took a late shot from linebacker Trevin Wallace. Hubbard seemingly took offense to the move as he stood right up to throw a punch Wallace’s way.
However,
things were simmered down to an afterthought by the end of practice.
“Just a football play; he’s playing hard, that’s what coach preaches, so nothing to be mad about it’s just football,” Hubbard said. “Obviously, a lot of emotions in it, but he’s playing hard and that’s what we need, so I love it. I mean, football is all about emotions, obviously I got hit, reacted a certain way, but like I said, he’s playing hard and I can’t be mad about that.”
Head coach Dave Canales was also able to take it in stride. In fact, the first-year coach ended up telling reporters that he loved to see the raw emotion flowing from his guys.
“Playing football,” Canales said in regards to the play. “We’ve got to toe the line, we’ve got to play physical, and a lot of times, it’s not personal, it’s just football. So guys will respond passionately, and they don’t like getting knocked on their butt, they take it personally. But you know there was a lot of physical play throughout practice, so that’s going to happen.”
Is the preseason here yet? Because it looks like the Panthers are absolutely itching at the bit to get into a real game, and that’s a good thing to see from a franchise looking to turn their recent fortunes around as fast as possible.
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