At a time when a new crop of rookies is trying to take his job, it would be easy for Panthers offensive lineman Andrew McDonald to take an every-man-for-himself attitude.
Instead, the former bullying victim is reaching out to a new teammate he just met — who could be replacing him.
McDonald was once alongside Jonathan Martin in the crosshairs of Richie Incognito in Miami, but is now with the Panthers after being signed to their practice squad last year. And he spent this weekend’s rookie minicamp helping gigantic Canadian tackle David Foucault learn the ropes.
“After each play I go see him,” Foucault said of McDonald, via Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review. “The coach is always talking to all the guys, so he’s like my personal coach. He said to me, ‘Do that.’ So I try to do that, and it helped me a lot.”
Given what he went through in Miami, it’s admirable that McDonald is willing to extend himself to newcomers, breaking the chain of harassment that a lot of players are willing to pass onto new guys once they’ve been the guy getting picked on.