‘It’s amazing’: Inside look at how the Carolina Panthers are keeping cool this summer

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Chuba Hubbard is in his fourth training camp with the Carolina Panthers, but things are quite different this summer.

Not only is he positioned as the top running back for the first time in his NFL career, but he’s also practicing daily in Charlotte as opposed to the Panthers’ longtime summer spot of Spartanburg, South Carolina, on the campus of Wofford College. And while he is still running hard and staying roughly 40 to 50 minutes after practice each day to work on his receiving skills, his post-workout routine now has an added dimension.

Now, instead of immediately going to the JUGS machine to snag fastballs with draft classmate and longtime friend, tight end Tommy Tremble, Hubbard is chilling out between practice and their post-workout regimen. The running back spends a couple of minutes after workouts in the team’s new cooling trailer, the BRZ40 — or Body Recovery Zone 40 — on the team’s practice field outside of Bank of America Stadium.

“Always good to cool down, especially after hot practice,” Hubbard told The Charlotte Observer. “We do JUGS (workouts) and stuff after, so just give myself a quick little break, cool my temperature down and let my body just relax — helps you a lot, obviously. Not too much shade here, so just to lower your body temperature, it helps a lot.”

The 40-foot-long trailer, chilled to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, is a more than $200,000 investment by team owners David and Nicole Tepper and the Panthers’ organization. It became an add-on accessory to a detailed renovation plan for the team’s practice area in the six months prior to hosting Carolina’s first fan-attended training camp workout outside of the home stadium.

Lined with metal bleachers to accommodate several players at a time, the 12,400-pound cooling hut is meant to serve as a body refresher for players and coaches who are working in the sticky heat of Charlotte’s summer. According to the BRZ40 website, the structure’s cooling process increases mental alertness, helps maintain optimum hydration and decreases fatigue.

So far, the reviews have been positive.

“You feel refreshed,” veteran right tackle Taylor Moton said. “It’s like — remember those old Peppermint Patty commercials? You take a bite and then you end up on that mountaintop. That’s like how I feel when I go in there, to be honest. It’s very refreshing.”

New field, new trailer

The cooling trailer’s arrival was only made possible by the Panthers’ recent renovations.

According to Paul Boudreaux, the founder and owner of BRZ40, the Panthers previously reached out about using the cooling trailer while they were still at Wofford for training camp, but the size and weight of the structure created logistical problems with transportation.

So, with an updated practice facility in the team’s backyard, Panthers head athletic trainer Kevin King spearheaded the plan to bring the BRZ40 to the home base.

King consulted with other NFL franchises that had previously installed the trailers at their facilities. Boudreaux lists the New Orleans Saints, Las Vegas Raiders, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans among the Opelousas, Louisiana-based company’s clients. King also got feedback from head coach Dave Canales, who used the trailer last year with the Bucs.

“Yeah, honestly, I used it a lot in Tampa,” Canales told The Observer. “We’ve been blessed with a great training camp so far. (Monday) was like, really the first day they got pretty warm, mid-practice right there, but it’s just a great tool.

“It’s like it’s so cold and it surrounds your whole body. It’s like a 90-second to two-minute process that will cool your core temperature. And it was something that I was glad we added for (hot) days like this. … We have these three-minute breaks, they can walk over there for 90 seconds and get a quick reset — it does help reset your brain a little bit.”

Along with a mental reset, the cooling trailer helps players and coaches conserve their energy throughout a day that includes a hot practice and several long meetings.

“Really, it’s like, the quicker you can cool the body down after the practice, like, the faster the body can start recovering, cause it doesn’t have to use that energy to cool the body — the trailer does that,” said Andrew Althoff, who serves as the team’s director of human performance. “So then it can take that energy and pivot it toward repairing the muscle, bone, tendon, ligament and all that type of stuff.”

Managing body temperature

Dr. Douglas Casa, CEO of the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut, has been advising the NFL and its teams on heat-related illness prevention since 2010.

Casa, who is part of the NFL’s general medical committee, said the trailers can be assets in heatstroke prevention.

“We’ve seen them in some big-time college programs, NFL programs,” Casa told The Charlotte Observer. “I’m a huge fan of them if they are using them during rest breaks, recovery periods ... basically like a big chill zone — cause you’ve seen the misting fans and the other ways people cool down — so it’s a way that you can get a lot of people cooling at the same time.

“It’s just really important to understand that you would never utilize that to treat an exertional heatstroke victim. This is only preventative in terms of its utility. You would always use cold-water immersion to treat a medical emergency.”

Casa said linemen, in particular, can run at temperatures between 103 and 105 degrees — without a heat-related illness — after a training camp practice. Other players typically run between 102 and 104 degrees, according to Casa.

Using the trailer before, after or between workouts can help bring down that temperature.

“Anything you do to lower your body temperature during intense exercise in heat is going to allow people to perform better and is going to keep them safer,” Casa said. “If someone starts activity a degree Fahrenheit lower from being in that (trailer), that’s a massive advantage.”

The Panthers have a new head coach. They also have completely new coaching staffs on offense and special teams, and more than 40 new players on their roster this summer. And the returning players, as previously mentioned, are also working in a new location during the training camp timeline.

Casa says those types of changes are typically worth monitoring during training camp, especially when it comes to heat-related illness prevention.

“People in new situations — whether a rookie on a team, a person who’s been traded, coming back from injuries or new coaches or circumstances where there are new challenges that weren’t there before — that’s my biggest concern,” Casa said.

Rookie cornerback Chau Smith-Wade, the team’s fifth-round pick, grew up in Denver and played college football at Washington State. His profile would seemingly fit into Casa’s category for concern.

But Smith-Wade says using the cooling trailer reminded him of home after he braved the first few hot days of training camp in Charlotte.

“It kind of just reminded me of Colorado,” Smith-Wade said. “I had my shirt off and I was just kinda just letting it sit on me, letting that cold sit on me. It’s definitely something that’s needed. Being in North Carolina, being down south, it’s very humid. It feels different to breathe in there, too. It’s not as thick as being outside. So, yeah, it’s amazing.”

Hanging out in the ‘penalty box’

When the Panthers’ veteran players reported to training camp in late July, they noticed the trailer resting where the team’s former practice bubble used to stand. Naturally, the veterans were curious.

Long snapper JJ Jansen and punter Johnny Hekker, who used to spend their downtime at practice competing in improvised competitions involving the now-defunct bubble, were among the initial explorers to visit the newfound structure.

“I think JJ and I came in first like, ‘What is this thing?’ and then we had a decent group of guys hanging out in here,” Hekker said while speaking to The Observer inside the trailer. “It was just a camaraderie. Guys come in, hang out, talk about the upcoming conditioning test and build that connection. And then by the time we walked out, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we feel amazing.’ It was just nice to be out of the heat, have these cool benches to sit on and chat with each other.

“But just that first meeting here, guys came in and they’re like, ‘Oh man!’ The excitement of a new tool in the toolbox that we said is great and then the excitement is sustained.”

The excitement in the special teams room probably goes beyond the norm.

Every day after field goal and punt drills, the specialists — Hekker, Jansen and kickers Eddy Piñeiro and Harrison Mevis — and special teams coordinator Tracy Smith close out their practice session by having a 90-second closed-door meeting inside the giant freezer.

Hekker jokingly refers to the time spent in the trailer as the “penalty box.”

“It’s sorta (putting) a bow tie on the end of practice, and it’s good camaraderie building as well,” Jansen said. “So we like being in here, having fun, and then we re-emerge refreshed and recuperated.”

Chilling out

In February, the NFLPA released its annual players survey report card. While the Panthers’ training staff scored an impressive A, ownership received a D.

The low grade for the Teppers, according to the NFLPA, was largely because of their alleged lack of desire to “invest the necessary money into the facilities.”

The player association said the synthetic turf field at Bank of America Stadium, which was installed in 2021, was the top complaint among players. The team has kept using the turf for football, despite shipping in field grass for high-profile soccer matchups.

Still, while the turf turmoil has yet to be resolved, the players have praised the team’s investment in the cooling trailer, which sits adjacent to the newly installed grass practice fields.

“It’s just an awesome investment for Dave and Nicole to make,” Hekker said. “To help keep players fresh, help fight off heat-related illness and the things that could sneak up on players that are working very hard.”

”We have other things inside the building, but something out here, that’s at practice, guys can use right away — on the days where they feel like it or they get a little bit overheated,” Althoff said. “I think it’s just a lot of appreciation and … a nice way to add something that we can do out here and kind of cool off before we head upstairs.”

While the trailer made its debut in training camp, its shelf life will go well beyond the summer. Jansen, the team’s longest-tenured player, believes the permanent structure will benefit the team well into the regular season.

“We’ve obviously been really blessed this year — camp has not been super hot,” Jansen said. “Obviously, we know that will change as we get later into August, we get kind of through this rainy season. September is really hot, so it’s not just training camp time — this is really the first two months of the season.”

Coming off a 2-15 campaign, the Panthers, now fronted by Canales, will take any and all advantages they can get to start the season.

With veteran players like Moton, Jansen, Hekker and Hubbard endorsing the benefits of the trailer, the rest of the team is likely to embrace the cool zone.

“After practice, go in there for like a few minutes,” Hubbard said. “Just give yourself a few seconds, do some breathing techniques and stuff in there. Cool down and then get to it.”