What was this celebration?
The Panthers are easily one of the weirdest teams in the NFL this season. Vacillating between being the worst team in the league, and playoff hopeful is something only possible in the NFC South — and Carolina are the masters of this oddity.
So, naturally when they win a nationally televised game against a divisional opponent it’s cause to celebrate, and Baker Mayfield did that by … headbutting his teammates while they were wearing helmets, and he was not.
Endorphins make us do some wild things, but this is on a whole other level. At some point in Mayfield’s celebratory brain he said to himself “yes, headbutting much larger men in helmets with my bare head is a great idea,” and he just went for it. These aren’t small little head taps either, it’s some big, boisterous, full-on head smashing into reinforced face weapons, with enough force to push back the offensive linemen.
On the plus side, as dumb as this is, it’s not like hurting yourself is really going to damage the Panthers chances long-term. There’s plenty of quarterback inadequacy in Carolina to go around.
Seriously though, I hope Baker’s noggin is feeling okay this morning. Nobody deserves any long-term injury from getting caught up and doing something stupid in the moment.
