'Icebreaker': Panthers' first-round draft pick Monroe Freeling gets first taste of NFL practice

'Icebreaker': Panthers' first-round draft pick Monroe Freeling gets first taste of NFL practice originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Monroe "Icebreaker" Freeling wanted to stay home.

The Carolina Panthers provided the opportunity, drafting the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, native No. 19 overall during the NFL Draft in April.

"You have to take everything with a grain of salt because I didn't know how this night was going to go," Freeling said on draft night.

When the Panthers called, Freeling described his first reaction: "No. way.

"It was surreal. It's still surreal. I don't even know if it's set in yet quite yet that I'm staying home and only a three-hour drive from (Charlotte)."

Suiting up for his first NFL practice Friday, reality set in for the former Georgia standout. The Panthers hosted 36 rookies and first-year free agents for the start of a three-day minicamp at the practice fields near Bank of America Stadium.

Freeling is serving as a roster icebreaker.

"I mean, when you put a bunch of people who haven't been around each other together for a the first time, the forced conversation," . "I think at breakfast I was around a couple of offensive linemen and no one was talking. I was like, 'All right, let's get an icebreaker going, tell me something about yourself, and something like that.