NFL locker rooms usually conform to the same basic layout. There’s a big laundry basket in the middle, a huge team logo on the floor and a couple of overpriced leather couches in a corner somewhere.

There is not, typically, a head coach perched in a locker stall dispensing important life advice to his players. But then there’s the Carolina Panthers.

“I have answered questions in the locker room about whether a player should get puppies,” Carolina head coach Ron Rivera said. “I told them having a puppy is just like having a baby, there’s a lot of responsibility.”

This is how Rivera, whose 4-0 Panthers are one of the NFL’s elite teams so far this season, is attempting to monitor morale in the locker room: He’s in there all the time.

Despite its prominent place in NFL culture, the locker room is a place head coaches usually avoid. Coaches may keep an open-door policy in their offices, encouraging players to come to them with any problems. But usually, head coaches keep their time in the locker room to a minimum.