NFL teams
David Newton, ESPN Staff Writer 7y

Kelvin Benjamin explains why he threw helmet during tantrum


OAKLAND, Calif. -- There’s bound to be meltdowns when an NFL team with Super Bowl aspirations doesn't fulfill its potential.

Kelvin Benjamin had a small one on Sunday.

The Carolina Panthers wide receiver tossed his helmet and yelled at a coach on the sideline when he was taken out of the game in the second half of a 35-32 loss to Oakland that all but ended Carolina's chances of making the playoffs.

Benjamin admitted later he was frustrated. He wanted to be on the field, but coaches were concerned about his left shoulder, which he tweaked on a pass over the middle in the second quarter.

"It’s an emotional game," Benjamin said afterwards with the hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his head while standing in the visitor’s locker room at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum. "It wasn’t a big deal. Just emotion."

Benjamin was supposed to be a difference-maker to the offense this season. After sitting out last season's magical 15-1 run with a knee injury suffered in training camp, adding him to the league’s No. 1 offense was supposed to make the Panthers better.

It hasn’t worked out that way.

Before a fourth-quarter, 44-yard touchdown catch that put the Panthers up 32-24, Benjamin didn’t have a catch in the game and hadn’t caught a touchdown in seven games. He didn’t go more than three games without scoring when he had nine touchdown catches as a rookie.

Benjamin hasn’t had a 100-yard receiving game since Week 2 against San Francisco. He had three two years ago when he exploded onto the scene.

The Panthers are 4-7 and the offense has been a model of inconsistency.

So maybe Benjamin’s frustration was -- in part -- a culmination of a season’s worth of frustration, a season’s worth of losing five games by a field goal or less.

"It’s funny, Kelvin and I just talked about that before I came out here and told him, 'Hey, I appreciate you being passionate. You’ve just got to learn to control it,'" Carolina coach Ron Rivera said during his postgame press conference.

Frustration and outbreaks such as Benjamin’s is something the Panthers have to keep an eye on as they approach their final five games, beginning with Sunday at Seattle.

There was another such moment late in the second quarter when backup quarterback Derek Anderson was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for something he yelled from the sideline after an incompletion on a deep pass to Benjamin.

There’s bound to be more frustration as the Panthers play out the season without postseason aspirations. But as wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. reminded Benjamin, it’s OK to be frustrated.

You just have to channel it the right way.

"I mean, when you’re playing this game, if you don’t’ have any frustration, that means you don’t love this game," Ginn said. "So for this man to come out and show his passion for this game and then come out and catch a touchdown right after that, it just shows what type of player he is."

^ Back to Top ^