It looks like football is back in full swing again, and the inner division rivalries of plenty of football teams are capturing the hearts of all football fans very early in the season.
This time it was the NFC South’s Carolina Panthers, and the New Orleans Saints that saw some of their key players get into it after the Saints’ 20-17 slugfest victory against the Panthers on Monday night.
As of Thursday, NFL outlets were still talking about the game and the confrontation between Saints’ receiver Michael Thomas and Panthers defensive tackle Derrick Brown.
Brown reportedly chased Thomas down in the tunnel leading to the locker room after the game. According to Sports Illustrated, a viral video was shared on social media, which shows the excited wide receiver hyped after picking up the road win on first-overall pick Bryce Young’s home debut.
As Thomas was headed back to the locker room full of energy, he could be seen shouting and arguing with an unknown person who was out of frame in the video. Shortly after Derrick Brown showed in the video, which made it clear he was the person Thomas had been shouting at as Brown was behind the receiver.
As the two football stars shouted back and forth at each other, exchanging verbal jabs, Brown eventually tried to charge at Thomas, but was held back by staff before he walked away.
No telling what words were exchanged beyond what’s audible on the video, but Thomas tweeted out on X what his perspective was on the situation.
“They tried to set me up,” Thomas posted.
He also insinuated that the Panthers got upset that Thomas was trying to dance after the victory, potentially rubbing the loss in Carolina’s face even more.
“They was playing good Snoop Dogg after I was just trying to do my dance“ Thomas tweeted.
Thomas Walked Through Wrong Tunnel
Saints head coach Dennis Allen eventually came and cleared the whole situation up, stating that it was a miscommunication and that Thomas had tried walking through the reconnect team’s tunnel, which caused players to take offense, especially Derrick Brown.
According to Saints Wire, “I think what kind of happened, Mike got a little discombobulated and he went through their tunnel, he was obviously trying to make his way back to our locker room. Looked like they took offense to that,” Allen said.
Whether it was miscommunication or blatant disrespect, we’re used to these type of antics from these rival football players.
We’ve already seen tons of feuds this season between teams, players, and even fans. One fatal fan confrontation in the stands of Gillette Stadium ended in death recently. Seems that wasn’t a fair fight.
Thomas vs. Brown would have probably been a lopsided affair as well. The two players seemed to tussle a bit in the tunnel, but it didn’t escalate into an all-out brawl. With 320 pounds of Derrick Brown ready to take your head off outside of the football game, it would make sense that you wouldn’t want those real-life problems. That would explain Michael Thomas still chirping at Brown while backpedaling away from the man.
Interestingly enough, these are division rivals, which means they will be seeing each other again on Dec. 10 for the rematch, probably with more playoff implications down the line.
