Jenkins blasts Panthers, calls effort garbage

In perhaps the most emotional locker room outburst in franchise history, Kris Jenkins ripped his teammates. Jenkins wasn’t asked a question to start the outburst and he wouldn’t take questions at the end. But here’s the entire text of what he had to say in between:

You all ready (clears throat)? All right, I’m going to be honest. I think the players owe the fans an apology. I would be as upset as they are if I had to sit in the stands for four hours and look at that garbage. I’m going to be honest with you. That’s what it was, garbage.

I apologize to you Pat because I didn’t put everything out as far as the issue (in an Observer story last week, where Jenkins challenged his teammates to handle prosperity better). This is our issue as a team. As a team collectively, we have no heart. We have no energy. We have no drive. Football is about pride and passion. I’m going to repeat that again. Football is about pride and passion. The pride and the passion that you have for this game makes you want to win. It’s not about the money. It’s not about looking the part. It’s not about standing on the field so everybody can see you on TV and that you look good. It’s about pride and heart. If you have those two, if you win or lose, you’re going to look like a football team.

That’s why we have issues with prosperity. That’s why we have issues when things look good. That’s why we can’t get enough together to look and act like a football team. This is not a 9-to-5 job. This is a game. It is a street fight. It is a gladiator sport and I apologize that sometimes I don’t look the part for what people want me to be. I’m not the weight that everybody wants me to be. But when I step on that field, what you are going to see is pride and heart because I value this game. I love it and that is what is frustrating me. We don’t have that.

We went out there and I felt embarrassed. I walked out the little line or whatever you come through to go play and I walked out and basically, in certain way, I challenged their team. And I challenged my team, because when you step out there like that and you do something like that, you better back it up and we didn’t. We got broke off. We really got broke off and I’m embarrassed to say so.

Right now, my heart hurts. It really does. It’s hard to sit there week after week and go through this. This is what’s not being addressed. Week in and week out, we might say this and we might say that or we need to change this. It’s not that you can’t pay for pride and heart. It might good when you look at the stats or when you look at someone’s 40 time or you look at everything else. But it doesn’t matter how many skills you have. It doesn’t matter how good you look when you catch a pass or when you run the ball or when you tackle somebody or cover somebody.

It’s not going to matter if you don’t have those two things, because this is the NFL. It is the National Football League. It is a professional sport and you have people out here, such as myself, who love this game enough that they’re going to put it all out on the field.

Tampa Bay came and they did that and they royally broke their foot off in our butt. I have nothing else to say. I’m upset about this, but I wanted to say that.