CHARLOTTE — It was hard to wipe the smile off Bobby Brown III's face Friday, except for two things.

One, he could barely keep his eyes open after a pair of six-hour flights that included a two-hour delay. Spending 12 of your last 16 hours sitting inside a metal tube is going to take it out of anyone.

But there was also his reaction to the graphic on the screens throughout Bank of America Stadium, which featured a menacing-looking Brown in the apparent act of enduring or, more likely, inflicting pain.

"Why the mean face?" Brown asked with some faux indignation and a laugh as his new Panthers teammates rolled through, greeted by graceful action shots from their previous stops on their welcome graphics. Of course, Brown's job description involves something more similar to the face he's making in the photo, so maybe it works.

"I'm feeling great just to be here honestly," Brown said, his smile topped by some seriously sleepy eyes. "But as far as traveling, man, today, oh, it's been a long day."

Brown was in Hawaii this week for NFLPA meetings and left Maui at 1:45 p.m. local time on Thursday (six hours behind Eastern Daylight Time). That flight was OK because he was in first class and slept the whole way across the Pacific. That was the easy part.

Then he got to LAX and encountered a flight delay, which stretched an already-long trip. By the time he finally boarded a red-eye bound for Charlotte, he had done all the sleeping he was going to do.

"That second six hours was just gruesome," he said. "I slept on the first one, but on the second one, I couldn't sleep at all. Normally, I love sleep, so on the first flight, I was asleep the whole time, but on the second one, I couldn't close my eyes not one time."

Asked what he did during that long overnight to kill time, he laughed again: "You pay for WiFi, and you figure out something to do on your phone. I mean, you're just scrolling through, scrolling on Twitter, talking to my mama until she went to sleep.

"And then yeah I was just scrolling on Twitter listening to music."

His mother's in Texas, so at some point, she went to bed at a somewhat normal hour, leaving her son to engage with Panthers' social content from 40,000 feet.

Speaking of social media, he's also already struck up an online relationship with new teammate Derrick Brown. And while Derrick might not remember it, a real life meeting left an impression on Bobby.

Bobby's Texas A&M team lost to against Derrick's Auburn his freshman year. But Bobby approached Derrick afterward, to tell him he modeled his game and his college jersey No. 5 after the Tigers game-wrecker. Bobby also wore 95 when he got to the Rams, but since Derrick is established in it here, this is as far as the homage is going.

"I've been looking up to him since I was 18," Bobby said. "Honestly, it was like I was already watching him at Auburn when I was in high school, but I was a D-end at the time, so it wasn't really too much of an attraction. But then once I came to college and I got bigger, and they wanted me to move to DT. And I watched in the game we played them, man. They didn't have anybody else in that defense because it seemed like all you heard was "Derrick Brown, Derrick Brown, Derrick Brown.

"I met him after that game; he may remember, he probably don't. I was a freshman. I'm just like, hey man, we got the same last name, blah blah blah. I kind of fanned out, but yeah, we met once, but that was pretty much it."

Since he joined the Panthers, Derrick has reached out via text to welcome his new teammate — and to welcome the help for a beleaguered defense.

"He was just like, let's go get this money," Bobby said. "Let's go win something; let's do it."

Bobby also got greeted Friday morning by former Rams assistant AC Carter, who came here this offseason to coach outside linebackers, as well as former Rams teammate A'Shawn Robinson. He also can't wait to run into center Austin Corbett again. Not only did he see Corbett at the union meetings, he also lockered next to him during his rookie year in Los Angeles.

But as Bobby reflected on his journey, both the long-term one and the just-completed one, he had a smile on his face that didn't reflect the scowl on the graphic because he felt valued here.

"Honestly, the fact that they wanted me," he replied when asked what led him to sign with the Panthers. "That they wanted to actually give me a little money, like something that I feel like I earned and could possibly earn more. But then on the flip side, it's like y'all got something going here and building something. Why wouldn't I want to be part of something, of changing the culture? If I feel like I can help, why not?

"And then, I mean, the chance to play with a guy like Derrick and these guys. I think it just makes it makes us that much more dangerous because it's like you could put everybody in every position, and then you could put certain guys in certain positions, but we're all going to feed off of each other, and we're all good in our own likeness. So it's just a dangerous pack of dogs."

He's happy to talk, much happier than he looks in that picture. But it has been a long day. He was scheduled to land at Charlotte Douglas International at 6:36 a.m., but it was 8:27 a.m. before he was dropped off at the West Entrance of the stadium to begin another long day. Then came a lap through the medicals, the contract signing, meetings with coaches, and some quick media before lunch.

And then the part he was probably looking forward to the most.

"I'm going to sleep," he said, and there was no joking about that part. "Is there a nap before dinner? It might be a nap until dinner."

At this point, he's earned it.