The Carolina Panthers have a longstanding tradition that involves rookies walking to practice. The Observer asked first-round pick Tetairoa McMillan about paying his dues. By Mike Kaye
Ryan Fitzgerald nailed a 49-yard game-winning field goal, as time expired, to beat the Green Bay Packers on Sunday at Lambeau Field.
But by Wednesday, there was no pomp or circumstance. The Panthers rookie kicker was back in uptown Charlotte, taking the long walk to practice by himself.
His veteran teammates and fellow specialists, punter Sam Martin and long snapper JJ Jansen, were chauffeured to and from practice on a golf cart. But Fitzgerald, like every other rookie on the 53-man roster and practice squad, took the roughly quarter-mile hike to the practice field the hard way.
“It’s just humbling,” Fitzgerald said. “At the end of the day, regardless of how much you contribute or don’t contribute, you’re still a rookie. You have to know your place, and all of these guys had to walk.”
The longstanding tradition — started in the mid-2010s during the franchise’s most recent glory days — has endured over the years. Jansen, who has spent the past 17 seasons with the Panthers, credits former first-round pick Shaq Thompson, now with the Buffalo Bills, with keeping the tradition alive after the linebacker went through the ritual during his rookie season.
“For the longest time, nobody took a golf cart out there, other than someone running late, because the walk, for veterans and rookies, was kind of a fun sort of pre-practice and post-practice therapy session,” Jansen said. “You’re sort of curmudgeonly going to practice, and at the end, you’re having fun with your boys. So, that’s been something that’s in there for a while, and then a handful of years ago, I think Shaq Thompson and a couple of other (veterans) were like, ‘We’re not going to let rookies — they’re going to have to earn their dues.’”
Members of the Carolina Panthers team and personnel walk to training camp practice on July 23, 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
According to multiple players, defensive end A’Shawn Robinson, who arrived in Charlotte last year, has taken over as one of the main enforcers of the tradition. Panthers rookies aren’t able to ride golf carts to practice until the fourth game of their second season.
Leading receiver Tetairoa McMillan doesn’t get a pass. Second-round pick Nic Scourton isn’t absolved. And third-round pick Princely Umanmielen still yearns to get a ride to the field.
But to the veterans, like Jansen and Robinson, the tradition is about paying your dues and earning your keep on a team of professionals.
“In this game, there’s not too many rules of how you do things and just teaching the right way of how to do things,” Robinson said. “Being coachable, understanding when you do something, just cause you went out there and played well, it doesn’t mean you necessarily earned (a privilege). Throughout the year, you will earn it, but right away, no.”
The tradition started out of seniority
As the Panthers started to use golf carts to drive to and from practice around 2013, the veterans decided that they should get first dibs on the rides.
According to former linebacker Thomas Davis, the rookie walk was a way of establishing a workplace pecking order. Rookies had to earn their privileges around Bank of America Stadium.
“It was, I want to say, like 2013, 2014, somewhere around there,” Davis said. “It was literally an ‘earn your keep’ thing. Like with everything else, you’ve got to earn the right to really do certain things. So, it was the cart and the visors — like dark visors (on helmets). You had to earn the right to put those dark visors on or ride the cart. You have to earn your legs — so that’s really where it came from.”
Davis said he’s glad the tradition has stayed the course.
“It’s cool because there are still a lot of things that are happening around here that started when I first got here,” Davis said. “And it’s nice to see that certain traditions are being passed on, and things are being passed down from one legacy to the next, and one group to the next. ... There were a lot of things that were put in place, not from a league-wide standpoint, but from a Panthers standpoint that have withstood the test of time.”
Carolina Panthers safety Demani Richardson walks to the team’s training camp practice before he reached the rookie season-and-three games milestone on July 23, 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
Longtime Panthers players view the lighthearted tradition as a culture-building exercise.
According to Jansen, it gives the veterans something playful to enforce on the rookies without it being mean-spirited or detrimental to the locker room.
“It’s a cool tradition,” Jansen said. “A little bit of rookie ‘earning your stripes,’ and it’s turned into a fun little thing for us.”
Predictably, the rookies don’t love the tradition
McMillan — who leads the team with 41 catches for 558 yards and two touchdowns through nine games — makes a living with his legs as much as his hands. So, having to take extra long walks from the locker room to the practice field isn’t necessarily his cup of tea.
Still, he can joke about it as he enters the midway point of his rookie campaign.
“Man, my body is going to die faster,” McMillan said with a wide smirk. “I’m trying to play this game as long as I possibly can — what my body can withstand. I gotta walk uphill and walk to practice. (laughs) It’s all good though, it’s part of the duties, so can’t complain.”
Scourton respects the tradition, but he also has a bone to pick with some of its logic.
During joint practice with the Cleveland Browns in August, the visiting team’s players were allowed to ride to practice using the Panthers’ carts. That didn’t sit well with Scourton, who still had to walk.
Carolina Panthers linebackers Maz Mwansa, left and Trevin Wallace (before he reached the rookie season-and-three games milestone), right, walk to the team’s training camp practice on July 23, 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
“I did agree with it — I don’t, myself, partake in the carts — but if some rookies did, I wouldn’t be mad at them because we allowed other players from other teams to come in our house and ride our carts,” Scourton said. “So, I don’t agree with that at all.”
Added Scourton with a smile: “They should have walked.”
Umanmielen doesn’t like to use his feet to get the practice area. He’s been known to tempt fate with the carts sometimes.
“I hate that walk,” Umanmielen said. “I always try to sneak on the cart every day — not every day — but a lot of times. Derrick Brown and A’Shawn Robinson are always catching me and telling me to get the hell off the cart, and I be having to walk.”
Older guys appreciate the rite of passage
When a Panthers player passes the rookie year-and-three games milestone, they are allowed to ride the cart without a second glance.
Center Cade Mays remembers walking with fellow 2022 draft pick, Ickey Ekwonu, and then-offensive line coach James Campen on the way to practice during his rookie year. The walks gave Mays and Ekwonu a chance to bond with their veteran position coach and hear his funny stories from his time in the league.
The payoff for those walks, according to Mays, is worth it.
“I’d say it feels good that you make it all the way through your rookie season, and then three games into your second year, it makes you feel like you belong a little more,” Mays said. “You see guys like JJ who have been here for 15 years, that ride the golf cart. So now I get a chance to. It’s cool. … You’ve still got to go out and prove yourself, day in and day out, but you get one more ride to practice.”
Members of the Carolina Panthers’ 2025 rookie class, including TE Mitchell Evans (left), WR Jimmy Horn Jr. (middle) and WR Tetairoa McMillan (right), walk to the team’s training camp practice on July 23, 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
For those who didn’t need to take the rookie walk, the tradition is a nice way to reward veterans and instill professionalism in rookies.
Robinson, who played for Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa during his college career, embraced it because of how much it reminded him of his time with the Crimson Tide.
“I loved it,” Robinson said. “I’m a traditional guy — I went to Alabama — so that’s how I always see things.”
And while there isn’t a complete buy-in from the 2025 rookie class, there are still some younger players who understand that the walk is just a stepping stone in their careers. They are all still in prove-it mode, no matter how successful they are on Sundays.
For Fitzgerald, it’s just become a part of his daily practice routine. He’s even gotten used to being frequently locked out of the locker room at this point.
“Usually that (locker room) door isn’t open,” Fitzgerald said. “So, I have to knock and wait for somebody to get me every day.”
Every day?
Fitzgerald laughs: “Every day.”