CHARLOTTE — In case you're wondering where your favorite Panthers player or coach is today, the safest bet is "nowhere near a football field." At least one designed for adults.

That might be a quiet mountain trail. Or a youth sports sideline. Or a Chuck E. Cheese.

But for all of them, there's the realization that this is the last real weekend they're getting until December and their Week 14 bye.

"Football, football is brutal," center Austin Corbett said before getting away. "It sucks. It hurts and it's a long, long season to get to February, so we're rolling with it."

He doesn't really mean that one part. Corbett loves football as much as the rest of them. But having been through seven NFL seasons and a couple of major rehabs, he also knows that that love comes with a cost. And the cost is that it hurts, and takes a lot of time.

When asked if people understood how "brutal" it was for players, he just laughed.

"Absolutely not. No, not a chance, No way," he said. "It looks so fun when you're watching on TV. It's exciting. I'm excited for this weekend. College football is back. It's going to be great. It's going to be fun watching, but even like watching Monday night games, Thursday night games, whatever it is, I still tell my wife when I'm watching, ... I'm just like, shoot. How do I do that? I was miserable. What's going on out there, but you go play ball.

"I mean we're a little twisted in our heads to to to enjoy what we do. There's the mental challenge of it, especially at center now, breaking down a defense, seeing different things, but the physical nature of at some point it, it's just man on man and I'm going to be better than you. And there's nothing else in this world that you can do that that's going to allow you to challenge another individual at that level."

In that paragraph, Corbett explained the dichotomy of the football mindset.

They love this. It's too hard to do it if they don't. But they're also acutely aware of how much it takes out of them, and how long this season is.

And that can be a personal strain that's equal to the physical. It takes a lot of time, and a lot of time away from family.

Panthers head coach Dave Canales just laughed when asked about his weekend plans. They're not trying to go anywhere, just stay close and hang out with the kids and spend time on their plans instead of his, which can dominate a calendar.

Linebacker Christian Rozeboom joked that he's considered flying home to Iowa — "it's only a two-hour flight" — but opted to drive to the mountains with his wife to find a weekend rental and a little solitude.

He laughed and admitted he doesn't even know where he's going. The wife's in charge of that part.

"You know what's coming, so you need a little quiet when you can," he said.

Corbett, on the other hand, is opting for the opposite of quiet.

This weekend, Corbett's going to celebrate his kids' birthdays. They're all in proximity, which is another one of those things he's learned to endure.

His daughter Landry has the same birthday as him, Sept. 5 — "So I no longer have a birthday for 18 years" — but all three of his kids were born around the start of the new season, which means this is the weekend Dad and all the kids have a party.

So they'll go to Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday, they'll go to church on Sunday, and they'll try to relax while they can.

"It's kind of like the last weekend before training camp," he laughed. "You enjoy it, you love it, then you kind of get home from church on Sunday, kids are napping and you're just like, 'This is it. Like, it's go time now.' So it's the Sunday Scaries, right? It's like, all right, we're here, we made it.

"We're excited. It was a great camp. It's a long camp and we're just excited to finally go do something meaningful now."

But not before one last weekend, when they steal a second for themselves.