The Pantherssuffered their first loss of the year at the hands of the Falcons on Sunday, and as a team that has prided itself on trash talk and celebration for much of the NFL season, Carolina received plenty of it in return after Atlanta secured the victory.
Falcons outside linebacker O'Brien Schofield says there was a very good reason for that.
Teams haven't appreciated the way that the Panthers have gone about their business this season, and Schofield said that a lack of class during the first meeting, along with the fact that the Panthers acted like sore losers after this one prompted him and his teammates to enjoy this particular victory a little bit more than usual.
"If you handle yourself with class, you don't have to worry about that," Schofield said, via ESPN.com. "But you see, they didn't handle themselves with class the first time we played [when Carolina won 38-0]. So I didn't care about how they were feeling after this game. I was 'dabbing' all in their faces.
"They took a picture during the game and posted it on social media the first time we played. It was a whole team picture. And Cam was running up and down the sidelines. There wasn't none of that today. We played a football game today. I'm not even a trash talker, but when someone disrespects you and you get payback and then they can't handle it, that's glorious. If they could handle it, it would be cool. I probably wouldn't have even 'dabbed.' But I was 'dabbing' in front of everybody."
The whole dabbing thing is officially played out at this point, especially after we saw Falcons owner Arthur Blank and Chiefs head coach Andy Reid both decide to do it on Sunday. But as long as it remains the unofficial celebration of Cam Newton and the Panthers, teams are going to continue to throw it in Carolina's face.
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