Panthers QB Cam Newton

(on what it means to be leading a team in the Super Bowl)

“You know what’s confusing? How can I reword questions I’ve been asked so many times? Golly. Nothing pretty much has changed since I’ve seen you guys 24 hours ago. I had an unbelievable sleep, but yet I’m up here again. It’s cool. It’s like I don’t know how you want to say it. I sound like a broken record, but yet for a dream to play out as it has through the ups and downs, it just means the world for us to get what you prepare for. For us, the ultimate goal for this sport is to win a Super Bowl. You win national championships in college and doing that, but you try to get drafted to a team that’s going to put you in the right position to win a Super Bowl and now we have that opportunity, and it’s nothing different than any other game that we’ve played. The only thing that is different is everybody’s maximizing on the media, but yet it’s nothing different. We’re still going through the regular preparation weeks of what they like to do and try to have answers for them.”

 

Panthers RB Jonathan Stewart

(on what the “Keep Pounding” slogan means to him)

“For me personally, it’s you’re going to go through adversity, you’re going to go through trials, you’re going to go through ups and downs and you’re going to have high moments and great moments, but I think just in life in general, when you face those tough moments you just have to remember and find some kind of significant drive to keep pounding and keep moving forward. I believe our sole purpose is to inspire. When you’re going through struggles and stuff like that that’s an opportunity for you to overcome, to show people that when you’re in a slump, when the odds are against you, when your back is against the wall, you show them that you can keep pounding, it inspires them to do the same.”

 

Panthers WR Ted Ginn Jr.

(on if he remembers what people were saying after WR Kelvin Benjamin got injured)

“Yeah. We understood that we were a whole bunch of misfits and different things like that. ‘We don’t have a receiving corps’, yeah we heard it. But we knew what we had in the room and collectively we came together as a group to make it work.”

 

Panthers TE Greg Olsen

(on how everyone is handling the anticipation)

“I think once we get back into our routine here today with practice guys will settle in a little bit. We got here Sunday. We’ve really only had one day of practice. It’s now Wednesday. We haven’t done a whole lot of football as far as on the field. I think today will be kind of nice to get back out there and get into our routine now and have these next three heavy practice days and get going.”

 

Panthers C Ryan Kalil

(on being quiet during offensive celebrations)

“Yeah it’s exhausting playing football. So I mean, I’m usually pretty tired at the end of the plays and I promise I’m dancing inside as much as I can. I just don’t have the energy some of these guys do. So I try to reserve as much as I can for the plays.”

 

Panthers DE Charles Johnson

(on how this week has been compared to what he thought it would be)

“It was cool. I was thinking a little more that it would ‘wow’ me every day or something like that. It’s just like a regular week. We just have increased media. Everything is maximized, but at the same time, you have to go through our week like we do every week. Work Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and we’ll be good on Sunday.

 

Panthers LB Thomas Davis

(on how long he wants to play beyond this week)

“I haven’t put any thought into it yet. I know I’m getting up there in age and years, but I’m really enjoying the moment right now. I just really haven’t even put any thought into how long I plan on playing.”

 

Panthers LB Luke Kuechly

(on being nervous when he first joined the team)

“Absolutely. I came in and heard what the NFL was like, so I walked into the linebacker room and there was Thomas Davis, Jon Beason, James Anderson, Jordan Senn – I mean, the list goes on and on. Those top three guys have been in Carolina their whole careers and have been successful. Beason had been to Pro Bowls, James had a ton of great years, and obviously Thomas. So when I got, there I didn’t know what my role was going to be, but I knew my role was going to be one thing and that was being the rookie. If I worked hard, kept my mouth shut, and did what I was told, I knew it was going to work out for me.”

 

Panthers CB Robert McClain

(on coming back to players he played with when he was first with Carolina)

“Yeah, there were a lot of players that were still here from the year I was in, 2010. That helped also. [Ryan] Kalil came over to me and said, ‘Welcome back.’ I was talking to Kalil yesterday about how time flies and things like that. It’s crazy how things worked and how things happen in life. But you just have to trust in the plan and continue to control what you can control and work hard in life.”

 

Panthers S Roman Harper

(on what’s different about this Super Bowl from his Super Bowl with the Saints)

“The one with the Saints, man, is a blur. It was so long ago. I think the biggest thing is 50. Everything is in gold. But at the end of the day, it’s still going to be the same game. It’s going to be a Super Bowl, so you’re going to have all the flashing lights and everything, all the media attention early. It’s not really all on your schedule. You understand that the media plays a big part in this. You’re going to have your media obligations every day, but after that, you focus in when you have to practice. Afterwards we hang out, get to hang with the guys and see what San Jose is about.”

 

Panthers K Graham Gano

(on if he has thought about the Super Bowl coming down to a field goal)

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that since I first started playing. I am hoping for it, so hopefully it does come down to that. I hope that every game and that is what makes my job the most fun.”

 

Panthers Special Teams Coordinator Bruce DeHaven

(on whether he thinks that it is ironic that he and Wade Phillips are back together for the first time at the Super Bowl)

“I guess. Any problems I had with Wade, I got over. It took me almost 10 years, but I talked to him before a ball game down in Houston a couple years ago and we ended up embracing. I don’t think he had a problem with me, but I had a problem with him and I think he was very happy that I reached out to him, approached him. That’s just the way the business is and I am now old enough and experienced enough to understand that.”

 

Panthers Offensive Coordinator Mike Shula

(On family and if they ever add more pressure)

“Not really and the reason I’m kind of smiling when I say that is because I’m the last of five kids. So my brother probably, he was the first to go through it. So any of that, I kind of learned from my brother and my sisters. Probably the first time I ever heard it, which I kind of laughed, was when my mom – I think we were playing, I don’t know if it was junior or senior year in high school and my mom was nervous about me playing because they said somebody had point bounty up for Shula. And so we kind of chuckled about it then. Probably ever since then, it’s just kind of been something that you know your last name, obviously like that, you’re gonna get singled out at times. But more importantly than anything else, I feel just so lucky just because of not my dad’s last name and who he was, but just because he’s my father. And the way he and my mom raised us and then have Dave and my sisters to help me along the way growing up.”

 

Panthers Defensive Coordinator Sean McDermott

(on safety Roman Harper)

“He’s my enforcer. I don’t know if the movie was ‘Slapshot,’ but years ago whenever we needed to do something, he comes out like the twins used to come off the bench and go in and lay the wood then go right back into the penalty box. He’s kind of that to us. He sets the tone for us and sometimes it becomes personal with him and that’s okay.”

 

Panthers Head Coach Ron Rivera

(on if parting ways with former defensive end Greg Hardy was positive for the team)

“We had to do what was right for the organization and we went forward from that point. It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances, a very serious problem and issue in our society today. We made a decision that we thought was going to be good going forward. As far as addition by subtraction, I don’t necessarily know it because he’s a tremendous football player, but there are some other things you have to consider going forward. As far as we were concerned, we made a decision that was best for us.”