Locker room “instigator,” subtle prankster

For Rivera, that was a perfect moment in a nearly perfect season, because it showed how a locker room could self-police, an egalitarian society in which no one was immune from jokes.

Cam was a huge personality, and even he was the target of locker room pranks. Especially when they were coming from Luke Kuechly, the man he called “August” (Kuechly’s middle name).

“He’s a guy that could dress up on Halloween like Cam and walk into the locker room and just tear everybody up,” Rivera said. “I mean, he was sneaky that way. People don’t realize he’s got a tremendous sense of humor and a willingness to show up when it’s appropriate.

“It was amazing. It really was. Even Cam got a good laugh out of it. Even Cam got a chuckle because when you can bring somebody back down to level, that, that’s priceless, and that’s what he could do.”

Of course, it helps when you’re a former defensive player of the year.

“I mean there’s a certain hierarchy that certain people can make jokes,” said Tillman, the kind of practical joker who once put a fake alligator in Rivera’s shower. “And I think if you’re going to poke at Cam a little bit, you need to be Luke too. He was probably the one to get away with that.”

For Rivera, that was an object lesson, because it created a balance for the locker room, and Kuechly was valuable in that way.

“He knew how to control that tempo,” Rivera said. “That’s the importance of him and who he was in terms of his personality, because he could use it. Everybody did look at him as a choir boy, that altar boy type of persona that he could project. But deep down he would do what he believed he should do to make things right, and that was what was impressive as well. He didn’t do it all the time, but when he did it. That’s where the impact came.”

“Luke was a bro, you know what I’m saying, a guy,” Newton said. “I never heard these words uttered ever: ‘Man, I hate Luke. Man, I don’t like Luke.’ It was almost like you didn’t know who Luke was, but you would question that person who said that if you were to hear something like that.”