Saints Coach Clarifies Postgame Spat Between Michael Thomas, Panthers’ Derrick Brown

More information has come to light that counters what fans first thought about the heated altercation.

Following the Saints’ 20–17 win over the Panthers on Monday night, New Orleans receiver Michael Thomas and Carolina defensive tackle Derrick Brown were recorded having a heated altercation in the tunnel.

Many fans thought the social media video of the incident made it look like Brown followed Thomas into the tunnel, but more about the situation has come to light to counter that narrative.

Saints coach Dennis Allen added more context for what happened as it was first unclear what caused the verbal spat. ESPN’s Katherine Terrell reported that Allen said Thomas was “confused” and walked through the Panthers’ team tunnel instead of the Saints’ to get back to the locker room, and some of the Carolina players took “offense” to this.

It’s unknown exactly what Thomas and Brown said to each other to make the exchange reach the level of intensity that it did, but the situation escalated to a point where Brown had to be held back by Carolina staff at one point.

Dennis Allen said that Thomas got confused and went back to the locker room through the wrong tunnel, to which the Panthers apparently took offense, thus leading to this exchange. https://t.co/PMvyP3Gccb

— Katherine Terrell (@Kat_Terrell) September 19, 2023

Thomas didn’t give too much detail about what happened, but he did post on X, formerly known as Twitter, first saying “They was playing good snoop dogg after I was just trying to do my dance,” followed by “They tried to set me up.” Each tweet had laughing emojis tagged onto them.

The Saints moved to 2–0 after the game, while the Panthers sit at 0–2.