Panthers were right to cut Ibe, whose hit on Kirkwood was ‘completely unacceptable’

Carolina Panthers wide receiver Keith Kirkwood left the team’s training camp on a stretcher in an ambulance Tuesday morning, the victim of a brutal and “completely unacceptable” collision that got the teammate who hit him fired 90 minutes later.

Every NFL camp has a couple of moments that get embedded into people’s heads for years afterward, and too often they involve fights or injuries. This vicious hit by safety J.T. Ibe, a former South Carolina Gamecock, and its aftermath was an awful example of the latter.

I thought the Panthers were correct to waive Ibe immediately. It might strike you as too knee-jerk that he was told to clean out his locker that quickly. But there are some lines in football you just can’t cross, especially with your own teammates.

A shoulder-to-neck hit in today’s NFL, when there is so much emphasis on not hitting defenseless players, is unconscionable. The defensive players who do this are like the guys who drive 120 mph on I-485 in Charlotte and then are sorry and surprised when they end up in a wreck. By doing something reckless, they put themselves and others into a horrible spot in the first place.

Kirkwood had some positive signs. The wide receiver had no pain in his neck and did have movement in his legs, Panthers coach Matt Rhule said after practice ended. A few hours later, he was released from the hospital and placed in the NFL’s concussion protocol, which was probably a best-case scenario given the scene a few hours before. Still, there is always a fear of long-term repercussions when a receiver is hit in the head-neck area and then crumples like Kirkwood did at 9:33 a.m. Tuesday.

As the situation unfolded over the next few hours in Spartanburg, my mind flashed back to some interactions I had with Kirkwood in 2020 that helped show me what kind of man he is.

In June 2020, I asked Kirkwood about possible photos to illustrate a story I worked on with him about his relationship with his then 8-year-old daughter Aria. He’s not Aria’s biological father, but he has raised her as his own, along with her mother, due to some tragic circumstances in her past.

I asked Kirkwood if he had a couple of pictures. A few seconds later, my phone began to blow up.

Instead of a couple of photos, Kirkwood sent me 23.

That’s Kirkwood, a loving dad who Rhule once told me was “truly one of the nicest people I’ve ever had a chance to coach.”

Panther fans haven’t gotten to know Kirkwood too well yet because his 2020 season ended up getting short-circuited by a serious shoulder injury. He caught only one pass in a real game last year. But believe me, he’s a smart player who has learned all three wideout positions and also could contribute on special teams, barring injury.

Then Tuesday happened. Kirkwood left his feet, leaping for a ball thrown by backup quarterback P.J. Walker. Instead he got clocked by Ibe, a former defensive back at both Rice and South Carolina who was signed in April and was desperately trying to make an NFL team. It was the Panthers’ first practice in pads at training camp.

Rhule was furious. He kicked Ibe out of practice for a hit the coach would later call “completely unacceptable” in his post-practice news conference.

Just after Rhule’s remarks were over, the Panthers announced Ibe had been waived.

Ibe told The Observer shortly after that — in his first interview after the controversy — that the hit was unintentional and apologized for it.

“I’m so sorry,” Ibe said in a phone interview with The Observer’s Jonathan Alexander after being waived. “I didn’t mean to hit him like that. It wasn’t intentional at all and I’m praying he’s OK.”

Ibe also said: “I just want everybody out there to know I’m a good dude and this is not my game. I’m not a dirty player.... I just feel bad.”

Kirkwood felt bad, too, though. Let’s not forget that. As Rhule, still steaming, said after practice: “You can’t tee off on somebody. It’s not what we do. It’s undisciplined.”

Should the Panthers have continued practice after the hit? That’s more of a gray area. I personally would have stopped it and sent everyone inside.

Rhule didn’t do that. He consulted a few players, saw that Kirkwood had movement in his extremities and — after about a 10- to 15-minute pause for medical personnel to take care of Kirkwood and for Rhule to address the team — continued practice for about another 45 minutes before it ended at roughly the scheduled time.

By that time, of course, Kirkwood had been transported to the hospital and Ibe was never going to put on a Panther uniform again.

The sky was gray after Rhule finished talking about the collision. As the players walked inside, it started to rain.

That felt about right. There are good days in every training camp. But this was a dark one.