Tom Talks

Where's the traffic? Where's the excitement?

The key is to leave by 10:30 a.m. If I leave for Bank of America Stadium at 11 on Sunday morning, I get hammered by traffic. And at Carolina’s home opener against Chicago two weeks ago, I was lucky to get a parking place in the Observer parking lot. Place was jammed with football throwing, dog eating, beverage drinking fans.
   Today, I moved to the parking lot like Adrian Peterson moves behind the Minnesota offensive line. There was no traffic, not on the freeway and not on the streets. And even though I showed up 10 minutes later than I did last week, the Observer lot was almost empty.
   The Bears, obviously, have a cache the Falcons do not. Their fans show up early, in Chicago jerseys, and stay late. Maybe Atlanta fans are late arriving types. Maybe Panther fans, this week, are.
   Maybe – and I think I read this in Sunday’s newspaper - there is no rivalry.

On the ACC, Newman and stinkin' Royals

• The ACC is as weak at the top as it has ever been. But the middle is suddenly compelling.

• North Carolina beat Miami on the road. It’s not just what the Tar Heels did but the way they did it. ESPN will wear out Trimane Goddard’s game-clinching end zone interception, but Tar Heels fans will cheer as if they are seeing it for the first time.

• Duke won an ACC game. After trailing Virginia 3-0 – and trailing Virginia in and of itself is an accomplishment – the Blue Devils scored 38 straight points. I always like it when the bottom-feeders emerge. The Blue Devils, who had lost 25 straight games in the conference coming in, are 3-1. They have the same record as Florida and North Carolina.

• What’s wrong with Clemson? I know. It’s the same thing that’s wrong every season. The Tigers, who lost 20-17 to Maryland Saturday, can’t parlay all that talent and all those superior recruiting classes into consistent victories in close games.

• I met Paul Newman several years ago. A sweet and kindly old man he was not. But he was Paul Newman, and it was jarring to read Saturday that he had died. If you grew up in the 1950s and '60s, you saw almost all of his work. I bought his dog treats, salad dressing and salsa. But he’ll always be Cool Hand Luke to me.

• I like all small-market teams except for the Kansas City Royals. The Royals are supposed to lose. But they kicked the Minnesota Twins Friday night and they’re beating them today. Know your role.

Noise in Vikings' dome unmatched

Minnesota fans are the loudest in the NFL. All right, there might be fans in other buildings that make more noise. But the noise here has nowhere to go. Fans wearing Vikings horns and carrying multiple beers scream and shout, and the noise goes into the air and hits the dirty parachute looking ceiling and bounces back. I’ve covered games in the other domes, in New Orleans, Atlanta and Indianapolis and even St. Louis when the Rams were good and in none of them does the noise resonate the way it does here.

Vikings' start good, Panthers' better

Starting a game with a horned mascot driving onto the turf on a motorcycle, fireworks blasting near the end zone and Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” – “I come from the land of the ice and snow” – blasting out of the sound system is impressive.
    But it was the Panthers who came out impressively, parlaying a Jonathan Stewart kick return, a Jake Delhomme pass to Steve Smith and a facemask penalty into a John Kasay field goal.
   If you’re a Carolina fan, however, there was an ominous development. Every time Delhomme dropped back to pass, he was rushed hard. That would continue throughout the first quarter.
   Carolina’s defense has been even more impressive. Chris Gamble delivered a huge hit, Ken Lucas made a nice deflection and Julius Peppers has twice come close to his first sack of the season. As the first quarter comes to a close, the Panthers had an interception, a sack and a shutout.

Scene outside Panthers' hotel evokes memories

   Security guards stood outside the downtown Minneapolis hotel in which the Carolina Panthers stayed. Players could take any one of four buses to the Metrodome, which was about six blocks away. Each left at a different time. Players could hang out at the hotel or in front of their lockers at the stadium.

   The two rookies emerged together, Jonathan Stewart first and Jeff Otah a few feet behind him. That's the order in which they were drafted. But today it will be Stewart following the big man.

   The security guards had it easy. A throng of three fans stood outside the hotel.

   It's interesting to return to the place from which you come. I grew up in Minneapolis, went to high school here and finished college here and got my second newspaper job here.

   I drove Saturday to Minnehaha Falls. I remember the waterfalls as being powerful. Man, you could hear them a half mile away. On this day, you could hear them when you stood within 10 yards. The roaring river had become a creek. The water cascading down looked like two fans, two separate creeks.

   I've been gone 27 years so there were other changes, new stores and restaurants and massive condominium projects. In my neighborhood, little remains. I remember a shop that sells and repairs lamps moving into a prime shop on a corner near my house. We thought: how long will that last?
   It's still here.

   Another place that's still here is Nye's. Nye's is where the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band plays. Place was jammed when they began. Ruth, who runs the band, is 76, and has been playing at Nye's, which Esquire once named the best bar in the U.S., for 33 years.

   When Ruth puts her cap on backward and her Flav-a-Flav glasses on, and begins to rap, "She's too fat, she's too fat, she's too fat for me," you understand why Esquire got excited. Polka is the music of my people.

   A lot of Minnesota fans tailgate along the Mississippi River. We ran along the water, over bridges, down hills although it seemed as if we mainly ran uphill. Even there, we couldn't get away from football. We saw locks on the Mississippi, which reminded me of my Lock of the Week.

It's the right time for Niners to add football

    Football will give Charlotte students and alumni a reason to return to campus and it will give the school a means to let the community know what it has. I've been a proponent from the start.

   I know that the timing is terrible. Our economy is in flux and, as always, we're overreacting. It's as if we're having a contest to see who can panic most.

   So, yes, the fall of 2008 is a terrible time for the school on the edge of town to commit to a multi-million dollar project such as college football.

   But you know what?

   There will be never be a good time. Money will always be tight. 

   If the school doesn't act now, it will lose the grassroots momentum generated from within, from alumni and students. And I can't see it coming back.

 

A little bit about a lot of things ...

Odd scene two hours before kickoff: the parking lot I use in real life, the one behind the Observer, was full of people. And they were happy. I’m not accustomed to seeing happy people in our parking lot.

They paid $30 to park, threw footballs, ate meat, drank beer and anticipated what was going to happen next. That’s you show up for football games three or four hours before kickoff. A Panther employee has to report to work at 7 a.m. He said the first tailgaters showed up as he parked his car.

I ran into former Carolina Panther Tim McKyer before the Carolina-Bears game. Even when McKyer said, “No comment,” he made it interesting. And I only remember him saying it once. And then he talked for 20 minutes. The man could, and can, talk. He also is one of the most underrated players in team history. He was a cornerback on the 1995 team. When he lost his starting job, he said he didn’t want to be a back-up to a back-up. He soon became an Atlanta Falcon.

Fans will disparage the Big Ten after Ohio State’s brutal loss to Southern California Saturday and Michigan’s equally brutal loss to Notre Dame. But the Big Ten is much more than the Buckeyes and Wolverines.

Minnesota, my school, won again. The Gophers are 2-0. They beat Montana State or Boise Tech or somebody. Most schools don’t have the guts to schedule Montana State this time of year. That’s not a team you want to play. It’s a team you have to.

Don’t disparage them for playing a lesser team close. Praise them for having the poise to win. That’s a good team.

East Carolina was impressive in its victory against Tulane. Think about it. For the first time all season, the Pirates are playing a team they’re supposed to beat. And they’re playing them in the almost empty Louisiana Superdome. So there’s no energy but that which they create. And they used so much of it in victories against Virginia Tech and West Virginia.

Quick take on Panthers' win vs. Bears

Chicago’s last chance comes on fourth and 1 from the 50 yard line with two minutes remaining.

   The Bears trail 20-17. If they pick up the first down, they have a chance to drive for a field goal to tie the game or maybe the touchdown to win it.

   Middle linebacker Jon Beason calls the players together before the play. He’s animated.
The defense is his as much as anybody’s.

   Jason McKie, 247 pounds, attempts to pound up the middle. The Panthers already are there. If there’s such a thing as a team tackle, this is it. In the middle of the pile is

Carolina’s Maake Kemoeatu, 345 pounds. Linebacker Na’ail Diggs also is there.

It would be easier to tell you the Panthers that didn’t lead the push or make the tackle.

   They stuffed McKie, ran out the clock and came back from the dead, beating the Bears 20-17.

   Kemoeatu jumped up and down, up and down. John Fox ran onto the field with his arms outstretched, not as demonstrative as he was after the victory in San Diego but just as emotional.

   But the man who called the defense together, Beason, did the best dance, moving to the music on the sideline. He was entitled.

   Would the Panthers have won this game a season ago?

   To win, they needed this offensive line, this defense, a healthy Jake Delhomme and a rookie running back, Jonathan Stewart.

Last season, they wouldn’t have had a chance.

This season, all things seem possible.

   

Cruising into Qualcomm

   One more report from the land of the 10 a.m. NFL kickoff:

   We cruised into Qualcomm Stadium two hours before the game. That’s what you do in San Diego, cruise. I haven’t encountered traffic since I landed Friday morning. Of course, I’ve spent most of my time walking down the street to one of the country’s great Mexican restaurants, the Old Town Mexican Café. The only traffic there is inside.

   Outside Qualcomm, I saw what looked like a giant water bottle, the kind you see in machines in offices. But there wasn’t water in it, there was beer. And there were two hoses, and one guy drank out of one hose and another guy drank out of the other. A good time was had by both.

   If the San Diego defense’s past work at Qualcomm is indicative, the Panthers might not have a good time today.

   The Chargers led the NFL last season by giving up only 10 touchdowns at home (as opposed to 21 on the road). They did not give up a first-quarter point at home last season (as opposed to 47 first-quarter points on the road). They intercepted 22 passes at home (as opposed to eight on the road). They are 15-1 at home the last two seasons.

 

However, two of their most important players likely will be at less than full speed today. Tight end Antonio Gates had off-season surgery on a dislocated toe and has tiptoed through camp and exhibitions. Linebacker Shawne Merriman has two tears in his left knee. He dared not to have surgery and will wear a brace.

 

Left tackle Marcus McNeill is out. If so, he’ll be replaced by journeyman free agent L.J. Shelton. That means Shelton, a 10-year veteran who changes teams the way some of us change shirts, will work against Julius Peppers.

    Enjoy the game.

Tops in TV, music, movies, other randomness

It’s good to fly early in the morning. Although getting up at 5:45 a.m. is a pain, the ease with which traffic moves, the abundance of parking at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and the absence of a crowd there more than offset it.

I pull off I-485 onto Little Rock Road, only mildly upset at the slower drivers who refuse to give up the left lane, and see the sign everybody who uses the airport craves: ALL LOTS OPEN.

I put on my turn signal and pull into the first lot I encounter, Satellite 2.

  It’s closed.

I’m a little rusty. I haven’t been on an airplane since March, when I flew to Detroit to watch Davidson play Wisconsin and then Kansas in the NCAA basketball tournament.

The problem with flying is that you never know what you’ll get. To me, the ideal flight is I’m the only passenger on the plane. My second choice: I have an aisle seat, the middle seat is open and, if there’s somebody in the seat next to the window, they can’t talk, or don’t want to.

That’s how it worked: the seat next to me was empty and the only word the woman next to the window said was “Thanks” when, after we landed, I asked her if she had a bag overhead I could hand to her.

But you can’t have everything.

The woman in front of me leaned way back in her seat. That’s her prerogative, and not surprising when the airplane leaves a few minutes before 8 a.m.

She was tired. I wouldn’t do it, though, not if there were somebody sitting behind me. I never have.

And two guys in the row behind me, one of whom had worked 30 years for the government and the other who was in the airline business, talked like radio personalities. They spoke as if every word had import and they wanted to share them.

Mainly, in their outdoor voices, they extolled the airline industry. They talked about what a miracle it was that they could fly from Charlotte to San Diego for less than $300, which is a good deal, and they talked about the history of aviation and, I think, the history of civilization. But about the time they got to Mesopotamia, they quit.

I love Mesopotamia.

I did not hear them again until we reached the California line.

When some people recharge, they want to be part of a group. They want to immerse themselves in humanity and conversation. They draw strength from it.

When I want to recharge, I drop out. It’s as if there’s an offensive line between me and the world. I like people. I just don’t like them all the time.

Whether you recharge in a group or by yourself is the difference between being an extrovert and an introvert, I’ve been told.

  When the beverage cart came by, I asked for a bottle of water. I think I read that drinks no longer are free, so I pulled out my wallet. But the U.S. Airways flight attendant didn’t ask me for any money. A few seconds later he returned. He asked for $2.

  To be part of this Charlotte to San Diego miracle, I was happy to pay. Plus, the ice was free.

  Hey, we’re passing over Tennessee. I think I see Nashville. All right, Vanderbilt, you beat South Carolina. But if you have any guts you’ll stop ducking the state’s best team – Wofford.

Here are some of the things you think of during a more than four hour flight.

The best five shows on television are:

1 – Californication.

2 – Weeds.

3 – Entourage.

4 – Prison Break.

5 – Curb Your Enthusiasm.

  The best movie I’ve seen in a theater this year is “Pineapple Express.” It’s hilarious. The best movie I saw in a theater last year was “Juno,” which was great, and it was set it two places I used to live, Minneapolis and St. Cloud, Minn., which I didn’t know when I walked into the theater. It would have been great if it had been set in Nashville.

The only movie I’ve seen in a theater this year is “Pineapple Express” and the only movie I saw in a theater last year was “Juno.” I need to get out more. But Movies on Demand and digital cable make it tough.

Speaking of movies, my top 10 movies of all time are:

1 – Shane

2 – Cool Hand Luke

3 – Casablanca

4 – Hard Times

5 – The Godfather

6 – From Russia with Love

7 – The Graduate

8 – The Day the Earth Stood Still

9 – Godfather II

10 – Dances with Wolves

  The best movies I’ve seen in theaters the last few years are “Thank You for Smoking” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.”

From now on, I pledge to go to one movie a month. You’re my witness. I eat too much popcorn and drink too much Coke, but that’s part of the experience.

Man, if I were USAir, I would pop popcorn in the back of the plane, let the smell waft through coach, and go down the aisle with the popcorn still popping atop a cart.

If I were greedy I’d charge $5 a bag, if I wanted to make customers happy I’d charge $2. If I wanted them to return, I’d give it away.

We are now passing above Little Rock, Ark., I think.

“Bill! Bill Clinton! Are you down there, Bill? I still like you, Bill!

Here are my NFL picks, most of which are numbingly predictable.

New England wins the AFC East, Dallas the NFC East.

Pittsburgh wins the AFC North, Minnesota the NFC North.

Indianapolis wins the AFC South, Carolina the NFC South.

San Diego wins the AFC West, Arizona the NFC West.

 Jacksonville is the AFC’s first Wild Card, New Orleans is the NFC’s.

Denver is the AFC’s second Wild Card, the New York Giants are the NFC’s.

  Excuse me, we’re passing above Oklahoma.

“Oklahoma, I have nothing to say to you!”

Thanks.

OK, here are my top 10 bands or artists of all time. (I’m talking to you now, not to

Oklahoma. I don’t care about Oklahoma.)

1 – Led Zeppelin

2 – U2

3 – Robert Johnson

4 – Bob Dylan

5 – The Rolling Stones

6 – Leadbelly

7 – Otis Redding (I don’t claim to know jazz, but I have a CD, just him and his piano, and his work is staggering).

8 – Oscar Peterson

9 – The Replacements

10 – Son House

  The beauty of opening day, whether it’s the NFL or any other season, is the anticipation. The flight is full of jersey-wearing Panther fans, and they’ll be giddy about all that the season and San  Diego offer when they wake up.

  There’s also a bonus to opening day. There won’t be another preseason game until 2009.

I feel as if I can see Las Vegas from here. My younger son, Pete, lives there. He was a college student who planned to major in English. But online gambling interested him more than James Joyce did, and he dropped out to go to Casino College in Sacramento.

At 20, he was the youngest of the students. Joining him were men and women in their 30s and 40s and 50s, folks that had tired of their careers, or had them taken away, and were looking for something new.

Pete has lived in Las Vegas for more than a year, deals in some tournaments and works at a casino. I would not trust my older son in Las Vegas, but I do trust Pete.

“Hey, Pete, be careful!”

Finally, we hit the California line and prepare to land. I hear several “Go Panthers" around the plane. There cities that make you smile when you land, and San Diego is one of them.

You want my list of top 10 cities?

I didn’t think so.

Wherever you are, enjoy the game.