INSIDE A BIG HONKING AIRPLANE — In an effort to get to Germany in the kind of shape to play a football game two days later, the Panthers have relied on people who have made the trip before, and they've talked to NASA. They've prepared schedules and meal plans, and they've detailed all their best practices.

But mostly, they're trying to not do what Robert Hunt did last year when he was with the Dolphins for their game against the Chiefs in Frankfurt.

"I was up playing video games the whole nine hours," Hunt said. "This is not a made up story, nine hours straight, me and my buddy Salvon Ahmed, we were up the whole time playing Smash Bros.

"And that's probably why I was really tired the next two days."

Yeah, that's not what they want, and having learned by experience, Hunt now knows what he's going to do Thursday night.

"Not that," he said with a laugh. "This time I'm definitely going to try to get me some sleep."

That's the goal.

After going through a somewhat normal day of practice Thursday, the Panthers are boarding their overnight charter flight with the stated goal of getting as much rest as possible while airborne. With the six-hour time difference between Charlotte and Munich and an eight-hour flight, they'll need to because the team is landing into a full day on Friday.

"The hard part is like, let's find a balance of giving guys realistic things that they can do to help with the time change, but you also don't want to make such a big deal out of it to where you stress out over it," director of health, performance, and nutrition Andrew Althoff said.

So things as simple as laying off the coffee far enough before the flight (they've suggested players limit their intake after 8 a.m. on Thursday, though JJ Jansen said he was pushing it to 10 a.m., which eliminates at least four hours of his normal allotment) and working them on Thursday afternoon so they're tired when they sit down. Then they'll pass out eye masks and earplugs and hope Hunt isn't sitting next to them.

The second half of the plan is to get them moving as soon as they land, just to shake out the kinks of a long ride.

Oh, and to keep them awake until 11 p.m. local time on Friday.

"It comes down to the discipline," Althoff said. "It's understanding we're going over there and this is a business trip, and we're going to play a football game.

"So, the more of these things that we can do, the more discipline we can have is going to put us in a better position to win the game."

As to the first part of the equation, some players are well-equipped for the challenge.

Veteran outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney, who made the trip to London with the Ravens last year, said one of his superpowers is being able to sleep anywhere.

"Like, even on a short trip with my kids, I fall asleep, and they're like, 'Daddy's passed out over there," he said with a laugh. "I can't ever stay awake on planes. I don't know why."

Veteran right tackle Taylor Moton, who was here for the London trip in 2019, has a process (as you might imagine), putting white noise in his headphones, and sacking out quickly.

"I'm going to do everything I can to get as much sleep as I can on that plane," Moton said. "And then that way I'll be able to hit the ground running."

That makes them the lucky ones. On the other end of the spectrum is outside linebacker D.J. Wonnum, who said he struggles to sleep on planes.

"I may sleep for like 10 minutes and wake up," Wonnum said. "I wake up like every 10, every 5 minutes. So it's hard, but we'll figure it out."

Wonnum made the London trip in 2022 when he was with the Vikings, which was his first overseas flight. He's not necessarily an eager flier (his first time in an airplane was when South Carolina went to Vanderbilt his freshman year) but said the bigger struggle was staying awake the following day.

"I know that once we get there, we can't go to sleep; we've got to stay up all day," Wonnum said. "So I know that I need to get all my sleep on the plane ride over here. Kind of just knowing what to expect is what's going to help me out. It's really hard, man. But that's where the coffee, the caffeine, and all the drinks come into play. We've just got to be mentally strong, you know what I'm saying?

"I realized it once we got there, we had practice, I went back to the room and I sat down for like 5 minutes and I'm like, oh, I'm tired, I'm ready to go to sleep. I'm like, no, I can't go to sleep. Let me go get some coffee, let me go get something to stay up. You really just have to keep yourself moving. Keep yourself busy; keep your mind going and your body going. That's it."

For all the science that's gone into this, Althoff said the basics of performing the following day were kind of simple.

Keep them moving, and keep them caffeinated.

"A lot of coffee," he said with a laugh.

But once the Panthers land and bus to the team hotel, they'll get players stretching and moving prior to Friday afternoon's practice.

"So you get the blood flow going, but also kind of work out the stiffness, soreness from the flight," Althoff said. "We have a practice later in the day, and that will help. So I think that'll help and then we've just got to be disciplined.

"Some people aren't going to be able to sleep on the plane. So that's going to be really important for them to try to stay awake because they'll be tired. Some guys will sleep 5 or 6 hours on the flight and will be perfectly fine."

After practice on Friday, there will be an amount of time to actually experience being in a foreign country. Hunt said after he got a few hours of sleep, the German experience was much better for him.

"I drunk me a beer or two; they were pretty good," he laughed. "I hung out with my buddies, got me a little schnitzel and that was pretty good. So it was a good time, man."

But mostly, this is being handled like every other road game, except with a longer plane ride on either end of it.

Andy Dalton's played in the London game three times previously (in 2022 with the Saints and twice with the Bengals), so he's done the entire week, and he's rolled in later. Like others, he said the key is getting rest when you can, but their early-evening departure makes for an awkward bedtime, even for a guy with young kids.

"Yeah, it is hard because you leave at 6 p.m., and they're like, all right, get some sleep, and it's like I go to bed early but not that early," Dalton said. "And I'm sure there's guys on this team that go to bed a lot later than that.

"So you've got to try to get your body to relax and find a way to get some sleep, get some rest because once you get there, it's not happening."

Punter Johnny Hekker has made this trip before, announcing the pick of Chandler Zavala from Frankfurt during last year's draft, complete with lederhosen. So he knows there's only so much you can do to make it comfortable. He's one of the fortunate ones who can curl up and sleep anywhere, but knows they're just going to have to power through the next 24 hours.

"I think if you travel and you can do a red eye, I think that's the best way to try it. I mean, it's going to suck," he laughed. "But if you can at least get a little bit of sleep on the plane, you're going to get there in the morning and have a little better time adjusting. It sucks. But I think it gives you the best chance of getting set up on normal time.

"Just make sure you get a good amount of exercise before, just make sure that your body is tired. You don't want to be well-rested showing up to the plane. You want to kind of be running on fumes. So that way you can just kind of lay down and fall asleep."

And then you wake up on another continent, on another day, in another time zone.

And the job is the only thing that feels the same.