Beason Ready for Pro Bowl

On his most recent blog entry, Carolina Panthers Pro Bowl middle linebacker Jon Beason had some interesting thoughts about his trip to Hawaii.

"I just got in last night after a 10-1/2 hour flight and didn’t see a single play of the Super Bowl. I had to be here by 7 tonight or I would miss the first meeting for the NFC Pro Bowl team, so I found out I had to fly during the Super Bowl. But I had dinner with my friend Lawrence Timmons of the Steelers last Friday and wished him luck. I’m glad everything worked out for him."

This has to be the only drawback to being in the Pro Bowl – missing the Super Bowl.  Even when your team isn’t in it, it’s hard to miss it if you love the game.  And Jon missed a great one.  I wonder who he would have been rooting for.

"I was trying to pack, but the truth is nobody tells you anything. I had to talk to some of the guys who had been to the Pro Bowl before, just to find out what to bring. The way it works, you have practice in the morning, and you’re pretty much free the rest of the day. I have a community service event that I’m required to do, but I don’t know what it is yet. Pretty much everything is at our leisure. We won’t have our first meeting until tonight so I don’t have a lot of details. Right now, I’m looking out my balcony window and it’s beautiful. We’re really secluded out here at the Marriot, about 45 minutes from everything. You have to drive to downtown Honolulu for all the fun stuff, the clubs, shopping, whatever you want to do."

Now that has to be nice!  Great room, free time and the warm breezes.  Oh, yeah, and nothing at all wrong with the hard bodies on the beach either.

"I’m here with my girlfriend and my family gets in on Wednesday. My mom, grandparents, brother and cousin are coming. I’m also having my financial advisor come out, too. Steve Smith came in on Saturday, I just talked to him like 10 minutes ago. I’m going to get with some of the guys who have been here before, that will make it a cool experience."

Smitty can tell him to just chill and maybe show Beason around.  Here’s where you can get a $12 Whopper and some really nice $40 t-shirts.  Then again, maybe things have gone up in price since I was there last during my Air Force days.

"Now, we’re getting ready to eat, then we’ll go to a spa, check out downtown, do a little shopping. Buy some Hawaiian stuff, have a mai tai or something."

Ah, the pressures of playing in the NFL!

"When I think about the Panthers, I realize how much is going to change next season. We lost almost all of our defensive coaches to other teams. Change is 50-50, it could be a great thing or a horrible thing. I’ll miss all of our coaches, I was very close with some of them and had a very good relationships with our defensive staff, but I’m looking forward to next season. I would have been fine playing with those guys for the next 10 years, but I consider myself a very coachable guy."

If there is a player on the team that can handle being coached by new people, it’s Beason.  The guy is a monster on the field and may very well be the best defensive player the team has.  Who am I kidding?  He is the best defensive player they have – with or without Julius Peppers.

"Any question marks we have will be about losing Julius Peppers. I feel he is irreplaceable, but maybe we can get a couple guys to fill in and spell each other at that position and play at a high level."

Jon wants Julius to come back but it sure looks like it’s not going to happen.  Let’s hope Pepp is happy down in Honolulu wearing the Panthers helmet for the last time.