‘JUICE BROTHERS’ HAVE PEP
Inside the Carolina Panthers’ playhouse, today’s secret word is … juice.
“Dude. Juice is a great word,” veteran cornerback Cortland Finnegan said after Sunday’s NFC title romp against the Arizona Cardinals. “I don’t know where the hell you got that from, but it’s juice, man. They got juice here. And it starts with the coach and everything else and works its way down. It’s juice. We’ve got the Juice Brothers over there.” Juice Brothers? “Dean Marlowe and Lou Young,” Finnegan said, pointing at the lockers of two young defensive backs. “We call them the Juice Brothers because they bring the juice every week. So, you write ‘the juice,’ and it just trickles down to everybody. It’s the Juice Brothers.”
That’s actually what you call these guys who didn’t suit up today? You’re not messing with me?
“Nope,” Finnegan said. “Watch this. Dean! Juice Brother!” (Waits for Marlowe to jog over.) “What they call you?” “The Juice Brothers,” Marlowe said. Please explain. “Because every single day, we bring the juice,” Marlowe said, “no matter if it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.”
“Juice Brothers,” Finnegan said. “I told you that.”
“Energy,” Marlowe said. “Enthusiasm.” “Because they’re young.” “We just go at it.” “Young whippersnappers.” You set the tempo? “Got to,” Marlowe said. “You’ve got to overcome the bad circumstances. That’s what you’ve got to do.”
“See, all these older guys come in here, like, ‘Ah, I’m tired,’ ” Finnegan said.
“Nope, you’ve got to go,” Marlowe said. “I always say this: You can be in Champaign, Ill., selling paint for a living, but we in Charlotte, playing football.”
Wait, were you in Champaign, Ill. selling paint? “No …” Please hold. “It’s a long season,” safety Kurt Coleman said, “but the great thing about it is, the Juice Bros, they have a few roles on the team, but part of the role — no, it’s serious — nobody’s allowed to come out there and just give half-effort. You’ve got to come out there and literally bring the juice …”
They literally bring juice? Like Capri Sun? Forget it, go on.
“… and if you’re not, you’re called out. And that’s why it’s so much fun. Everyone’s held accountable.”
What happens if somebody gets called out?
“You change your attitude!” Coleman said. “Look, turn up. You’ve got the juice!”
Surely there’s a T-shirt in your locker that can add some context here. “Where is it? Right here.” (Reads: GET ON THE BUS.) “No, GET ON THE ENERGY BUS. That’s what we’re about, is positive energy,” Coleman said. “It’s electric. There’s a book. We all read the book. It’s called The
Energy Bus.”
You were assigned to read it?
“No, I think it was the coaching staff that read it. But our DB coaches would give it to a DB, he would read it, sign it, give it to another DB, etc., etc.” So it’s about sustaining energy? “Not just that, but the effectiveness of positive energy in comparison to negative energy,” Coleman said. “It’s about creating a vision for yourself, but also creating a vision for a group of people.
“Obviously, our vision was to make it to the Super Bowl and win the Super Bowl. But within that vision, each individual player needs to have their own vision, and within that individual vision you want to bring people along onto your vision.
“You’ve been around people who are just negative, and it drains you and it creates an atmosphere of no one wants to be productive.” Tell me about it. “So either you have to kick them off the bus, or they’ve got to retrain their thoughts and get back on. That’s what it’s about.”
This place is starting to make more sense. Hey, where’s the other Juice Brother?
“It’s Jacked Up Intensity Contagious Energy,” Young said.
It’s been an acronym this whole time? Screw it, I’m not rewriting.
“I want to say Uncle Rome — we call him ‘Unc’, (safety) Roman Harper — Unc came up with it,” Young said. “He said ‘Juice Brothers,’ and then it just stuck. Yeah, like probably the beginning of the season. The juice is contagious. We bring that juice.” So Monday through Saturday … “Monday through Sunday!” said Marlowe, materializing again nearby.
OK, so if you’re not even in uniform Sunday … what is it you do? Marlowe: “Oh, juice!” Young: “Juice.” What does that mean? “We’re dancing,” Young said. “Dancing,” Marlowe said. “We don’t let ’em down, because if we don’t bring it — we just feel like we’ve got to crank the engine up.”
OK, so we’re back to the bus again.
“If you ask anybody on this team who probably brings the most juice during practice and during pregames …” Marlowe started. “… that’s us,” finished Young. You’ve got some older guys on this team, like Roman …
Young: “Cortland. They a little old, but we’ve been giving them fresh legs.”
Marlowe: “Putting them back in their prime. That’s what we do.”
So even though you’re not playing, you’ve bought into this as your role? “Got to,” Young said. You’re like the hype men. “Yeah,” Young said. “And they’re grooming us up, so we’re doing what we’ve got to do.”
Can you sustain the juice until the Super Bowl?
“What?” Marlowe borderline-yelled.
“Yes,” Young said. “Nineteen weeks — the juice is not going to stop. It’s not going to stop.”
Of course not. The Juice Brothers won’t let it.