Panthers center Ryan Kalil defended "little" brother Matt Kalil, arguing that the Vikings' struggling left tackle is playing better than many suggest and then using humor to downplay Sunday's postgame altercation in which Matt flipped the hat off the head of a heckler outside of TCF Bank Stadium.
"I was a little disappointed," said Ryan, whose Panthers play the Vikings 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 also jokingly took the blame for Matt's hat-flipping move.
"It's probably my fault for picking on him when he was little," Ryan said. "Flipping his hat off, I think, was the go-to move for me."
On a serious note, Ryan said his brother has never been more frustrated for several reasons, including a balky right knee that hasn't healed entirely since offseason surgery and an avalanche of criticism that he's never experienced.
"Confidence is everything in this league," he said. "The hardest thing is to sort of drown out the criticism. Some of the criticism is fair and a lot of it's not. Everybody goes through it. The quicker you can realize that, the more you can be mentally tough and drown all that out, the better off you'll be.
"The biggest thing I'll say about Matt is he works hard. I know he's very talented. I know the knee thing bothers him. I think he'll be fine though. I think he'll be good player for a long time. I think this is a learning experience."
Webb says he's ready
With right tackle Phil Loadholt going on season-ending injured reserve because of a torn pectoral muscle, J'Marcus Webb was re-signed and will be the swing tackle who backs up Mike Harris and Kalil in Sunday's game.
