Bulletin Board Material
By John White
What lies ahead for the Carolina Panthers is one of the biggest games this franchise has ever played. Is it the biggest regular season game in team history? That’s for others to decide.
The thing that will be decided Monday night is who will have the NFC South lead for at least the next week. It’s funny how this rare Monday nighter is bringing out some strange things.
There was a rumor floating around the internets that the Panthers would be sporting all black unis – black pants, black jerseys and even some strange looking black helmets. Apparently, some folks wanted the Panthers to become the Jerry Glanville version of the Atlanta Falcons. What’s next? The run and shoot offense?
Next was the “Blackout” that had been requested of the fans. Fashionistas were not available for this post but I’m sure they would have said something like, “Black is the new…um…black. It certainly does have a slimming effect.” Like anybody cares when they’ve had a half dozen beers but are still freezing in the stands.
Let’s just leave the rumors and the silliness to others, shall we? Let’s talk some actual football!
As if the Panthers needed a reason to be fired up, yeah right. If you can’t get up for this game, you’re dead from the neck up. Still, I thought I’d dig around and find some writings that just might fire these guys up even more.
I came up with this breakdown of the game by the always insightful Adam Duerson of Sports Illustrated. Who are we kidding? We’ve never even heard of the guy.
"Five minutes with their schedules tells me which of these two teams is legit, and it ain’t Carolina. Starting form the top, the Panthers edged the Chargers on the last play of the game in Week 1 and rallied from 14 down to nip the Bears, who’ve shown a Costanza-like inability to close in ’08; then they handed the Vikings their first win. They whipped Atlanta behind Muhammad’s lone standout performance of the year and laid the smack down on Kansas City when the Chiefs were in their darkest hour — big whoop."
Oh yeah?? Big whoop right back at ya’, pal!
What amazes me is how everybody in the media can jump on the latest bandwagon to park itself outside. The Titans? Try this one on for size – eleven wins, right? Yup! But of those eleven wins, seven have come against teams with losing records (Jacksonville – 2, Cincinnati – 1, Houston – 1, Kansas City – 1, Green Bay – 1, Detroit – 1) Is that a big whoop? Sure! And we all remember Kerry Collins here in Carolina with fondness too, pal!
What I can’t seem to understand is how the media seem to take a win for granted. Does anybody want to be the first team to lose to Detroit? No. But I have news for you – somebody will be that team. He knocks the Panthers because their impressive win against New Orleans came when Reggie Bush and Jeremy Shockey missed half the game.
What has Shockey done when he was healthy? Little or nothing. I doubt his presence would have made that much difference.
I would hope that the Panthers don’t need this or anything else to motivate them for this the biggest game of the season and their biggest game in years. I figured I would throw it out there just in case.