More from Delhomme interview

    In talking with Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme about his rehabilitation from Tommy John surgery on his right elbow last week, we touched upon a number of other subjects as well.

    Delhomme is good friends with both Eli and Peyton Manning, the back-to-back Super Bowl MVPs. He’s been a counselor at Peyton’s offseason quarterback camp, and was particularly happy to see Eli lead the Giants to their remarkable Super Bowl win last Sunday.

    “I was extremely excited for Eli, and I thought what the Giants’ defensive line did in putting pressure on Brady was unbelievable,” Delhomme said.

    While amazed at New York receiver David Tyree’s late reception on the Giants’ winning touchdown drive, Delhomme wasn’t all that surprised.

    “I was with David at the (2006) Pro Bowl when he had made it as a special teams’ player,” he said. “Coach (John) Fox wanted to use everybody in practice and he some receiver for us, and did an outstanding job. You could tell then that he could play.”

• Delhomme thinks the Panthers, listed as 45-1 longshots to reach the Super Bowl by some prognosticators, aren’t far from competing at a high level.

• You can’t talk to him without bringing up horses; his family owns a number of thoroughbreds back home in Breaux Bridge, La. But he doesn’t muck stalls anymore (“no sense risking injury,” he said last year), and the Kentucky Derby is on the back burner.

    “We’ve got some good two-year-olds,” he said, chuckling. “But that’s not my priority right now; football is. That’s for later (in retirement).”

—Stan Olson