Short practice, then 3 days off

With the bye weekend approaching, the Panthers’ practice today was shorter than the usual Thursday workout. But in a different situation, it would have been nonexistent.

"This one’s always been on the books to be a little short so the guys can get out of town," coach John Fox said as he walked off the fields behind Bank of America Stadium. "But we’ve got young players; two new quarterbacks. If we were a solely veteran team, we might have had another day off.

"In our current state, we needed a little bit of work, not for everybody, but for some of the guys."

That would include new quarterback Vinny Testaverde, who said Wednesday that he was still in the process of learning Carolina’s playbook.

This week "just gave us a couple more practices to bring those guys along," Fox said.

Now many of the players and coaches will scatter across the country for a much-needed break from the game. They’ll reconvene Monday to concentrate on the upcoming game with Indianapolis.

By the way, I’m impressed by friend and colleague Tom Sorensen’s 24 blogs in 24 hours. Ask anyone who blogs; he set himself an almost impossible task and still kept his sense of humor throughout.

-- Stan Olson