Tom Talks

Green Bay

   I don't know how many Panther fans made the trip to Green Bay. But even if they don't like the game, they can't complain about the atmosphere. The best fans in the NFL fill the bleachers at Lambeau Field and the bars, restaurants and igloos around it.

   There are several qualities about Packer fans I admire. They care, and they don't care who knows it.  The percentage of G (for Green Bay) stickers to residents is as high in Green Bay as the percentage of G (for Georgia) stickers is in Athens. Maybe Green Bay's percentage is higher after Georgia's loss Saturday to Georgia Tech.

   Packer fans don't hate because you come from a different city or cheer for a different team. Although they desperately want their team to win, they also want to have a good time, and they don't mind if you have one, too. At some of the massive sports bars near the stadium, they'll offer you a seat at one of their crowded tables. And as much as they want to talk about their team, they want to ask about yours.

   Lambeau, even the retooled edition, is still the rare stadium you don't enter right away. You stand outside, your layers of clothing keeping you warm, and admire it. You think of all that has gone on there. And then you think, and I'm going in.

   So Green Bay fans are No. 1. I'd rank Pittsburgh's a clear No. 2.  Third? I don't know. There are several contenders, but none of them break from the pack the way fans of the Packers and Steelers do.

   

Flair pumped about sons facing Nasty Boys

   I ran into Ric Flair at a bar Wednesday night. My wife and I were having a drink and Ric and his party were en route to a table. When he walked in, heads turned.

   If you had a celebrity contest, a contest to see which Charlotte celebrity would attract the most attention simply by entering a room, who would win?

   Steve Smith, Jake Delhomme and Julius Peppers would be candidates. So would Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Michael Jordan would be a factor. But he'd be at a disadvantage if the room were in Charlotte.

   I think the final four would include Flair, Earnhardt, Smith and Delhomme. Not sure who would win.

   I also ran into Flair at Harris-Teeter Thursday morning. On both occasions, he was excited. At Vance high school on Dec. 6 he will manage his sons, David and Reid. Reid will make his professional wrestling debut. The Flairs will tangle with the Nasty Boys, who will be managed by Jimmy Hart.

   Also on the card will be Richie Steamboat, son of Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, as well as the Rock 'n' Roll Express and the Midnight Express.

   And a special guest referee will be Hulk Hogan.

   Not bad for a Saturday night in a Charlotte high school gym.

   Tickets are $100 and $20. For more information, go to www.highspots.com.

 

 

Picks

   I make my NFL picks in Sunday's paper but figured I also should pick today's winners and need witnesses. I'm picking Tennessee by eight over Detroit, Dallas by 13 over Seattle and Arizona by two over Philadelphia. I realize one of the games might have started but I promise I wasn't going to pick Detroit.

   Saw something new today after the five-mile Turkey Trot race -- tailgaters. They drank mimosas and ate and laughed and eased into the day. Kudos. Might have to try that next year. The rest of us headed to Starbucks, sat in the sunshine and drank coffee. That worked, too.

   I hope you found something for which to be thankful. To be outside on day like this was a fine start.

   Have a great Thanksgiving. And thank you for reading. I've always appreciated readers. I always will.

 

Panther Panic

   After a decisive Panther loss, I usually hear from the panicky people. You know them. You might be one of them.

   Panicky people are the ones that during the brief gas shortage waited in line 45 minutes even though their tanks were more than half full. They're the ones that hear about snow in Asheville and rush to Harris-Teeter for milk and bread even though they live in southeast Charlotte and already have milk and bread. They're the ones that surrender when their team trails by 10 at the half. They're the ones that get up at 5:15 a.m. to shop for gifts the day after Thanksgiving.

   I only heard from a few today. Two told me the Panthers would not win another game, finish 8-8 and fail to make the playoffs.

   I don't agree. I'm not good at panic. I've never been good at it. The idea of rushing to Harris-Teeter to buy bread and milk is appalling. I'd buy wine and dog treats. 

  Before the season, I predicted the Panthers would go 11-5, and I'll stick with that. I thought they'd beat Atlanta, lose to Green Bay, win at home against Tampa Bay and Denver, and lose on the road to New York and New Orleans. To attain 11-5, the Panthers will have to win one more road game.

    To its credit, Charlotte was calm today. Email was less frequent than usual after a loss, and almost nobody at the gym this morning complained about the Panthers or North Carolina or talked about N.C. State, Independence-Butler, South Carolina-Clemson or Appalachian State's tournament seed. 

   I attribute that to Thanksgiving. This is the rare week when almost everybody turns introspective. We think about Thursday and we think about family and friends. We think more about what we're doing and less about what our teams are doing.

   Especially when our teams play the way they did Sunday.

   

Technopeasant

   My telephone company told me I was entitled to a free phone upgrade. The phone I had been using looks as if it was made by C students in a high school shop class in 1974. I was looking at the free phones and was thrilled to see a silver BlackBerry. The thing has 14 icons on the front, each with an important purpose.

   "Don't get it," my wife said. "You'll never figure it out."

   This meant I had to get it.

   I am technopeasant. A friend came up with the term a decade ago. It applied to her then and it applies to me always. I don't do well with machines. I'm not curious about how they function. I have no urge to take them apart to find out. I'll go to a NASCAR race or to one of the race teams, and somebody will patiently answer a technological question. And even when I ask the subject to talk more slowly and use smaller words I can't figure it out what he's saying. So I mainly nod my head. Cool.

   yet, I love machines. I love my car. I need a car that handles well, has a good sound system and  makes me feel good when I put the key in the ignition. My wife's teen-aged son, Cory, is a potential technological genius, and he asked me how many cylinders my engine has. Six, I said. Six or eight. 

  He checked. Four, he said.

   But it's fast.

   It's a turbo, he said.

   Of course.

   A machine on which I've come to rely is the iPod. I do intervals on the ellipitical machines in our house and in the gym, and if I didn't have Robert Plant, U2, the White Stripes and several dead blues guys to get me through, I couldn't do it.

   But when I tried running with an iPod I was a disaster. A slow song such as Led Zeppelin's "That's the Way" would slow me to a 12-minute mile trot. A fast song such as Spirit's "I Got a Line on You" would have me sprinting down the street, oblivious to the world and to traffic. I haven't run with an iPod since. Besides, I like running alone, not talking, just letting thoughts meander and shift, especially on Sunday morning. When I finish running, I'm always smarter than when I began. 

   The iPod was a gift, as was the GPS system. The GPS saved me on trips to specific destinations in Asheville and Wilmington, cities with which I'm not really familiar when time was especially tight. But when I don't turn where the woman's voice tells me to the Nagometer kicks in. And it's insistent.

   I've had my BlackBerry 11 days now, and my wife was wrong because I've already mastered the thing. I can make calls, receive calls and tell time. And when a friend has a lesser phone, I'm really good at putting mine next to it.

    

   

Point Guards

   When the Charlotte Bobcats took D.J. Augustin with the ninth pick in the NBA draft, most basketball fans in and around Charlotte yawned or complained. They wanted a big guy, preferably 7-foot Brook Lopez out of Stanford. Some of us are conditioned to believe that bigger means better. Thus supersized meals. Thus SUVs.

   Lopez, who went 10th to New Jersey, will be a servicable big guy. He could be good. But Augustin already has demonstrated that despite being a foot shorter than Lopez he will be special.

   The rarest commodities in basketball and true and talented centers and point guards. You can always find big guards, small forwards and power forwards. And you can always find a lumbering big man. center. But if you desperately need a point guard, and have the opportunity to draft one as low as ninth, you jump.

   I wrote a column before the draft advocating Augustin because of all that he offers. Raymond Felton is not a prototype point guard. He works hard but he doesn't have the skills that enable him to, say, get the ball to the wing cutting off the pick when and where the wing wants it. Felton spends a lot of time beating his man with spin moves. He'll then draw a defender to him and find the open man.

   But he doesn't see the court the way a true point guard does. Playing for so many coaches with so many philosophies hasn't helped.

   Augustin sees things. He exploits openings the way a tailback would and pushes to find his shot or a shot for a teammate. Against Atlanta Friday, he scored 26 points and added seven assists and turned the ball over only once. One turnover in 40 minutes is extraordinary.

   Augustin has the potential to be an all-star. I'd be surprised if, in a few seasons, he isn't. He's not tall. He doesn't have to be.

 

I Don't Care

   A former Panther told me he'd heard that I wrote a piece defending Carolina after Peter King ranked the team as the NFL's ninth best in his Monday Morning Quarterback segment on SI.com. The former Panther meant it as a compliment. But I couldn't take credit.

   Unless there are extenuating circumstances, I would never react in print to another writer's work. King said the Panthers were a quiet and suspect 8-2. And let's be honest. The schedule has been user friendly. The Panthers have taken advantage. They've played six games at home and only four on the road. They've beaten Kansas City, Oakland and Detroit.

   I've been impressed with Carolina's work. The Panthers have been opportunistic. They're undefeated at home and .500 on the road. If the Panthers sustain that, they finish 12-4 and open the playoffs at Bank of America Stadium.

   Readers also have emailed to talk about the lack of respect the Panthers get, and they use King's ranking as proof.

   I don't get it. I think people manufacture things to get offended about.

   I'm not good at caring what other people think. I don't see any advantage in ceding that kind of power to people I don't know. I have a constituency of family, friends, co-workers, supervisors and readers whose opinions I respect. If I write a good column, they'll tell me. I wrote something I liked a few Sundays ago and I heard from everybody from which I wanted to hear. I was gratified with their response.

   But to worry about what a guy from Sports Illustrated thinks, or what a stranger thinks, I just don't understand. A writer in Philadelphia ripped Charlotte before the Panthers-Eagles game for the NFC championship, and I was assigned to attack his city. But I like Philadelphia. I thought the guy's piece was funny, albeit over the top, and I wasn't offended. Why would I care what that guy thinks? Why would you?

   Do any of us measure our worth by checking with strangers? Do you like me? Is my hair OK? Am I worthy?

   The NFL is not the BCS. If the Panthers are the NFL's ninth best team, the next six weeks will give them the opportunity to prove it.

   

 

The Keydrick Show (with deangelo and damione).

   I wrote in Monday's paper that the Panthers have the potential for a great talk show. Guard Keydrick Vincent and running back DeAngelo Williams could be the hosts and defensive tackle Damione Lewis could be a third host or a correspondent.

   Keydrick says after practice Wednesday, however, that while DeAngelo and Damione can be assistant hosts, sidekick types, they can't be full-fledged co-hosts.

   Why not? They're funny.

   But DeAngelo and Damione have to reach to be funny, says Keydrick. As he says this he stretches his arms and reaches. He says humor is easy for him. It just flows out of him.

   "Every week at the beginning of the show, I get out of a limo," says Keydrick. "I wear a -- what do you call those hats? -- a bowler. And I do a different dance every week."

   He begins to dance.

   I laugh.

   "See how easy it is for me," Keydrick says.

  If Hollywood doesn't appreciate them, HBO or the NFL Network should.    

 

Boxing Isn't Dead

   I was watching "24/7 de la Hoya-Pacquiao," the excellent HBO boxing series, when I saw a familar face.  There was Angelo Dundee, the long-time trainer who has guided so many notable fighters, among them Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard.

   Dundee, 87, had come to Oscar de la Hoya's training camp in Big Bear Lake, Cal. De la Hoya and will fight  Manny Pacquiao Dec. 6. Oscar has been past his prime for years, and he'll need all the assistance he can get. Agreeing to fight Pacquiao takes guts and gall.

   I met Dundee a decade ago in Charlotte and spent time with him again two years ago at Fight Night for Kids, the annual Charlotte boxing fundraiser. Humpy Wheeler saved me from a boring conversation by grabbing my arm and dragging me to the bar, which isn't terribly difficult. At the bar was Dundee.

   I could have listened to Angelo talk about his boxers and boxing for hours. Yet, despite Angelo's pedigree, he wanted to hear my opinions. That's the mark of a humble and confident man. When we finished, I thanked Angelo for his time. He thanked me for mine. Few sportswriters still care about boxing, he said sadly.

   One sportswriter that does is George Kimball, formerly of the Boston Herald. He wrote "Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing."

   I read it on a Charlotte to Detroit to San Francisco to Detroit to Charlotte journey and was sorry when it ended. I'm talking about the book, not the flights.

  Those of us who love boxing probably didn't realize what we had when the four fighters, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran, all ended up in the same weight class, middleweight, at the same time.

   It was a golden age, and Kimball reminds us in a story beautifully told and rich with detail.

   

   

Want to bet?

   The NFL is by far our most popular sport for a variety of reasons, and one of them is gambling. People that can't fathom a Las Vegas line in Major League Baseball and would never consider putting money on a college football, basketball or NBA game will bet on the NFL. Teams play once a week and information is easy to come by.  That's why the end of Sunday's Pittsburgh-San Diego game was such a disaster for bettors and for the NFL.

   The Steelers were 4 1/2-point favorites. They led by only a point as the teams lined up for the final play. Everybody that put money on the Chargers was thrilled. And then the Steelers scored off a San Diego turnover as time expired. This put them up by seven. They covered. And now everybody that had bet on the Steelers was thrilled.

   According to RJ Bell of Pregame.com, 66% of the money on the game was on the Steelers. If this is true, bookies also are thrilled, since that's money they don't have to pay out.

    Referee Scott Green admitted after the game that officials had misinterpreted a rule and that the Steelers should have been credited with a touchdown on the final play.

   If the perception is that officials are aware of and influenced by the betting line, the league loses credibility. The folks that put money on the Steelers lose cold, hard cash.