Carolina's Ryan Kalil defends his 'little' brother; has advice for how to handle hecklers

The Kalil family obviously isn't quite as appalled as some that Vikings left tackle Matt Kalil flipped the hat off a heckling fan after Sunday's 24-21 loss to the Packers.

On Monday, Matt Kalil himself said it "wasn't a big deal." Today, Kalil's older brother, Ryan, the starting center for the Carolina Panthers, joked about the incident that became a popular video on TMZ.

"I was a little disappointed," said Ryan, whose Panthers play the Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium on Sunday. "I would have actually liked him to go with the, 'You spilled something on your shirt' and then throw the finger up into [the fan's] chin. I think that would have been a funnier move."

Ryan said he was on the phone with his father, Frank, at about the same time news broke that Matt had confronted a fan outside TCF Bank Stadium. Frank, a former center, was drafted by the Bills in 1982 before playing in the USFL.

"I asked my dad if he heard what happened," Ryan said. "He said, 'Yeah, I heard the whole thing. It was an ugly deal.' He said the guy called Matt over and said he was big fan. Asked for his autograph. [Matt] went over there and then the fan continued to start saying some pretty ugly stuff to him. So I think my brother just kind of reacted.

"It's probably my fault for picking on him when he was little. Flipping his hat off, I think, was the go-to move for me."

On a more serious note, Ryan said Matt's struggles and Sunday's incident are learning experiences.

"When you're not winning, that's the hardest thing. Everything is worse when you're not winning. I know that frustration personally. Nobody is immune to hecklers. We get them daily here, too. We get them on social media and there are times when I've had to bite my tongue. It's hard. It's not easy to deal with. Yeah, I think it's a lot of different frustrations. And I think it's also an individual who doesn't represent the Vikings' fan base who was being pretty ugly."

Matt's play on the field, meanwhile, has been a bigger issue. He has given up 11 sacks, according to Pro Football Focus, and was penalized three times in Sunday's loss.

Ryan said he watches every one of Matt's game tapes and talks to him after every game. He said this is "absolutely" the most frustrated he has ever seen his brother.

"I think he's his hardest critic," Ryan said. "I think it really weighs on him when he doesn't play well. I think for the most part, he has played well. I know he's been struggling with his knee," which underwent arthroscopic surgery during the offseason.

"Confidence is everything in this league," Ryan continued. "The hardest thing is to sort of drown out the criticism. Some of the criticism is fair and a lot of it's not. But that's part of the game and that goes for everybody. It's frustrating hearing bad things written about Matt because I know what a good guy he is and how hard he works and cares. That's frustrating, him being my brother."

"He's going to continue to grow and he'll bounce back from that, but I think for the most part, he's played fine," he said. "He does a lot of good things. I think late in the game, being down and in a lot of passing situations, it's hard. It's not ever one thing that happens. Not making excuses for him.