CHARLOTTE — There are certain things the Panthers knew about Adam Thielen when they signed him.

Works hard. Good at catching flying things. Sometimes uses two hands to do so. Great in the community, with years of giving back to back it up (as evidenced by Thursday's nomination for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award). Tremendous golfer.

There are also things about Adam Thielen some of them didn't realize at the time.

Like his distaste for shoes in general. Or the extreme dad energy he brings. Or, perhaps most significantly, that he's one of the league's great trash-talkers.

"I didn't expect that at all," rookie tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders said of the veteran wideout. "Like no BS, there are some people on the field who go about their business, and you got the talkers, you know what I'm saying? He just don't look like the type at all."

And yet, those who have known him for years, or admired him from afar, or gotten to know him as he came here, have come to realize that Thielen's, let's say fiery nature, may be what allowed an undrafted rookie to carve out a 12-year NFL career.

Long snapper JJ Jansen didn't have a lot of background with Thielen when he got here, but last year in the preseason, he got an early look at what was to come. Thielen was playing about a quarter in the final game here, but what stood out wasn't the four catches or the touchdown — it was the back-and-forth with then-Lions safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (whom he'll see again this weekend in Philadelphia).

The old-head receiver was taunting the opposing safety for not playing in the preseason, keeping the banter going, not letting up.

"I knew then he was going to be a culture-setter for us on the field," Jansen said.

That may be as important as any of the catches, any of the touchdowns, or anything else Thielen can bring to a team that has some older players but is young in its development.

His teammates can give dozens of examples of the way he lifts them up with the juice he brings. A couple of weeks ago against the Chiefs, he drew a pass interference penalty in the end zone, and gave a quick point to let the opponent know about it.

"He's prime age for the finger guns, man," tight end Tommy Tremble said of the 34-year-old. "Adam, he's a cool, calm, collected, a good guy, you know what I mean? But when he gets on the field, man, it is fun to be with him because he talks his crap like no other, which a lot of people wouldn't expect. But that's what happens when you're a baller."

The fact he's made so many plays over the years allows him to get after opponents.

He made two Pro Bowls during his days with the Vikings and was voted to the league's Top 100 players by his peers three times. He has three 1,000-yard seasons to his credit, including last year, when he was nearly the only functional part of the Panthers offense.

But he's also someone who keeps everyone on their toes, from opponents to officials. Sanders said that hearing Thielen get on a ref for what they deemed a bad call was "the funniest s--- I've ever seen in my life."

"It brings the juice; it brings like the fierceness out of us," Sanders said. "Just him being around so long and understanding the game and still seeing him have that fire inside him. Like that love of the game, it spreads throughout the team."

Of course, if you aren't prepared for that fire and stand too close to it, you can get singed.

Rookie cornerback Chau Smith-Wade got the full lesson this offseason during OTAs. He said with pride that he eventually got his first pick as a pro while covering Thielen during practice, but not before he also got his "welcome-to-the-NFL" moment from the veteran wideout as well.

"So, we kind of share a lot of things when it comes to this football thing," Smith-Wade said with a laugh.

He knew of Thielen when he got here, but when he walked on the field, he tried to take the name off the back of his jersey and play the guy who was lined up across from him.

And that guy gave him an education, and then gave him the business.

"I don't want to say he made me look foolish, but he made me look foolish," Smith-Wade said. "Then he tried to shake my hand after the play, and I was like, I ain't shaking your hand.

"You got to kind of recognize after that, all right, this guy had been doing this 11 or 12 years. It did hit me later, I didn't want to tell myself that, kind of let myself off the hook. But yeah, I did kind of get back to that late at night when I was thinking about it in my room.

"Knowing how tight we are now after he did that, we'd be walking by each other then, and I'd be looking at him like, 'I'm going to get you back, I'm going to get you back.' I happened to not get him back yet, but it's going to come; there's still time."

Teammates have those kinds of stories about Thielen, a level of comfort that doesn't always come with a guy who spent a decade in another place. But Thielen embedded himself here quickly, and made himself at home, maybe getting a little too comfortable here at times. One teammate laughed and recalled Thielen getting fined last year for walking barefoot into the player's cafeteria. Shoes aren't always his deal until it gets so cold that it's impractical. (One of the things he prefers about Charlotte to his native Minnesota is the temperate winters.)

"He's certainly way more hippie than some people expect," punter Johnny Hekker said, not in a derogatory way. "He's one with the earth, a free spirit; his body is his temple kind of guy." Hekker's also quick to add that when you see him around his kids, the way they "look at him like he's a superhero" speaks to the way Thielen leads.

Young ones are drawn to him, in part because of his energy. But also for what he pours into them.

Practice squad wideout Dan Chisena (who caught his first NFL pass last weekend) was a member of the Thielen Youth in Minnesota, showing up as an undrafted rookie from Penn State, ready to learn the ways of the undrafted rookie from Minnesota State.

"It's all about just his work ethic and preparation, like being so consistent," Chisena said. "And he's doing the same thing here that he's always done. That was his thing. I just kind of remember, as a rookie, trying to watch him, go about his process, and learn as much as I could. Just that competitive spirit that he has, it's obvious to everyone who watches it."

Likewise, rookie receiver Jalen Coker has signed up for the club, trying to emulate Thielen as a role model after coming here undrafted from Holy Cross and seeing what it takes for a guy Thielen's age to stay at this level.

"I mean, this is what, year 12 for him, so he's definitely like a legend out there," Coker said. "Someone that you want to learn from, and now as you get to know him, you know, he's a really down-to-earth guy, really nice, you know, all about his family, religion, all that stuff. He's a really good dude."

Of course, not every NFL veteran is as warm to rookies, but Thielen has always been willing to take them on. He joked with Coker about there only being room for one undrafted receiver on the field at a time (Coker got a lot of Thielen's snaps while he was out with a hamstring injury), and the veteran from Minnesota also does a mean Xavier Legette impression, crossing regional boundaries as easily as he slides into a soft spot in a zone defense.

"He always gives us his two cents, how he thinks we should have run some route or how he thinks we should approach the game," Coker said. "He's just making sure we know that when we mess up, stuff happens. He makes us comfortable that we can go out there and play at our best, and if we make a mistake, just do it at 100 percent."

Coker said he used to play with the Vikings on Madden just so he could be like Thielen on a screen, and now that he's next to him instead of attached to a controller, he's understanding how he made it this long.

What Coker wasn't necessarily as prepared for was that sneaky side, that ability to needle opponents, which began coming out as soon as he got back on the field against the Chiefs.

"I figured he was just too nice," Coker said with a laugh. "I knew he had to have some type of a little grit to him. I mean, he's passionate about the game, and he's confident in his abilities. So I was happy to see that when he gets out there, he starts to get a little bit up and takes it a little personally. I feel like you have to want to beat that other guy across from you and he's trying to do the same to you. So you got to have a little bit of that."

For Thielen, the work ethic creates that heat that burns two ways — inside him and pointed at opponents. And being out for eight weeks made him realize how much fun he was having, so it all started coming out at once.

That fire was back, and his celebration over that pass interference penalty by the Chiefs that led to a game-tying touchdown was just an example.

"I think for me is just the last eight weeks have made me realize how much I love being out there and just being able to just go out there and have fun and be myself," he said. "I almost got a little emotional because I'm like, man, I love this so much, and you don't realize what you have until it's taken away. Granted, it could have been a lot worse. But eight weeks for me felt like a long time.

"I mean, I love this game. I love to win and help my team win. So it was obviously a huge call. It gave us an opportunity to go and score and an opportunity to tie the game. So I was just excited."

Moments later, he took a shot on a two-point conversion attempt, and popped to his feet immediately, the former undrafted rookie never letting anyone think for a second that he doesn't belong.

"When a guy hits you hard, you got to get up fast so it makes them feel a little bit less about themselves," he said. "So, I was just talking a little bit of smack."

Like a lot of teammates, David Moore knew about Thielen the player by reputation. He played against him when he was with the Seahawks and saw signs of it then. Seeing it every day in the locker room and meeting rooms made him realize how constant that energy is.

"He's edgy on the field, he has that confidence, he holds himself like that," Moore said. "I kind of knew a little bit, but I didn't know to this extent. He's one of them. He gets live. He's just a competitor, man. That's just him, man. That's Adam.

"So you're just trying to match his energy. That's what he wants to give off, and it's good because it's great energy. You're ready to compete when you see Adam out there."

Even at the age of 34, he's still capable of bringing it. He's shown it the last two weeks, from the touchdown that wasn't just before halftime against the Bucs to the go-ahead touchdown with 30 seconds left to the sensational one-handed grab in overtime, the kind of catch mere mortals don't always make.

But he's still making them, in part, because he's always approached the game the way an undrafted guy does. He wasn't a fast guy when he was young, so age only adds experience rather than taking away his ability to separate. He separates himself by the way he works, and that creates those opportunities for that spark to ignite again.

"It's easy; you do the right thing all the time," veteran quarterback Andy Dalton said when asked how Thielen has maintained this edge, on and off the field, for so long. "For him, it's not always about height/weight/speed; it's about having a feel for a game and understanding how to get open.

"And when you do that early on in his career, he was probably a little more athletic than he is now from a speed standpoint. But when you know how to run routes, you know how to get open, you understand coverages and all that kind of stuff, it allows you to just keep playing because you don't need that high-end speed to be playing. I think just the way he goes about it and with the intensity that he plays with too, like, he's not just catching balls and coming back, he's catching balls and letting everybody know how good he is, you know? That's what's fun about it. I mean, it's what he's done his whole career.

"Look at every catch he makes in every game, especially when he's near the other sideline. That's what made him him, and what allowed him to be at a high level so long...It's just the understanding of everything that we're doing, and he makes everybody else around him better."