Tom Talks

It's over

   Gray day, gray game. The Panthers slip into rebuilding mode, and they lack the draft choices to rebuild. This is going to be a long season. There are things a team doesn't get to do, and one of them is lose at home to Buffalo.

   And if the Panthers suddenly get hot, they're not going to win the NFC South. They'd have to make the playoffs as a Wild Card. And they've already lost to the competition -- Philadelphia, Atlanta and Dallas.

   But they're not going to get hot, are they?

Anybody's game

   It's true that midway through the third quarter the Carolina offense has yet to score. But three more safties and the Panthers take the lead.

If Barnidge were two feet taller...

   Who do you blame for the interception, Jake Delhomme or tight end Gary Barnidge? Barnidge is 6-5. If he were two feet taller, and a world class high jumper, he might have gotten his fingers on the ball.

   Terrible, terrible pass.

ACC football championship and Charlotte a good fit

   The ACC football championship moves to Charlotte in 2010, and several prominent Charlotteans would like to keep it here.

   Perhaps some of them have attended the SEC championship. I went to Atlanta a few years ago and watched the SEC championship on Saturday and the Carolina Panthers play the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Carolina-Atlanta was a game. The SEC championship was a cause.

   Downtown bars and restaurants were jammed that Saturday night. The trains -- MARTA -- were full of fans from the participating schools chanting and talking and yelling and singing. As spread out as Atlanta is and as dysfunctional as its freeway system is, the city felt like a college town.

   The ACC doesn't have the SEC's talent or tradition. The SEC competes for the national title. The ACC competes for the ACC championship.

   But the ACC could improve. It almost has to.

   Attract the right teams and Charlotte, too, could jump and shout. Virginia Tech and Clemson have a big-time fan base, and North Carolina and N.C. State fans would show up en masse if their school advanced. Florida State fans are everywhere -- or were. 

   I'd love to see it. If the wrong teams advance, plenty of good seats will be available. But it's worth the risk.

 

An eye for an eye and a Steve Smith for a Steve Smith

   I proposed what I think is one of the greatest trades of all time in my Fantasy Football league. I'm not doing it because my team, Willie Dixon, which won its first four games, has lost its last two. I'm doing it because it is the right thing.

   I offered Steve Smith for Steve Smith. Tell me if, in the annals of football real or fantasy, a player has ever been traded for a player with the same name. I'm not aware of it and I don't want to ruin this blog by going through 50 years of football to check. If there were two Red Granges, and they were traded for each other, so be it.

   One Steve Smith runs a great route but is not particularly fast. His co-workers, however, include two standout young receivers, one of whom, Hakeem Nicks, played at Independence high school.

   The other Steve Smith established himself as an elite receiver years ago. He is fast and runs a nice route, but it's his quickness and power that distinguish him. His supporting cast is not nearly as strong, and he doesn't play with a Manning.

   Sadly, my Smith for Smith trade was rejected.

   But when running backs who don't share a name but share a division -- the NFC North -- were added the deal went through. I lost Ryan Grant but picked up Matt Forte.

   Although I'll miss Steve Smith, it's almost as if he never left.

 

Tougher than usual to hate these Yankees

   I'm not a fan of the New York Yankees. They are a testament to excess. At the end of every season, every failed season of late by their standards, they try to figure out how to improve.

  Should we build a great farm system? Nah, that's too hard and it takes too long.

   Should we stop collecting All-Stars and find players who know how to run the bases and play their positions, guys who don't go high in the Fantasy draft but understand how to win? Nah, those guys all play for Minnesota.

   Well, what should we do? Hey, I know. Let's go out and offer outrageous sums of money to free agents. But didn't we do that last season and the season before and the 14 seasons before that? So?

   So before the season, the Yankees signed free-agent slugger Mark Teixeira and free-agent pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett.

   And this time it worked. They were the best team in baseball. And even though the talented Los Angeles Angels are a trendy pick to upset them, I don't see anybody beating New York.

   Most seasons, the Yankees are easy to dislike. Unless you're a fan, contempt comes naturally. But even though they destroyed my Minnesota Twins last week, I kind of like them.

   Along with being a high-priced slugger, Teixeira is a superb fielder and a clutch hitter. The Yankees haven't had many of the latter. CC was mediocre most of the season. But as the season wore on, he began to wear out hitters. The Yankees didn't overwork him the last month and he looks fresh.

   My favorite New York pitcher is Andy Pettitte. I like the old guys (he's 37) who get by on guts and guile.

  In his spare time, Pettitte helped expand the language. In an affidavit, Pettitte wrote that Roger Clemens told him that he used human growth hormone. Clemens informed a house panel that Pettitte misheard him.

 That's a cool word, misheard. I tried it. "But honey, you misheard me when I said I was coming straight home after the game."

   It didn't work any better for me than it did for Roger.

   When New York fans claim they have a nice rotation, you did not mishear them. Sabathia, Burnett and Pettitte fit beautifully.

   The Yankees finally are more than a testament to wanton spending. They play smart and they play clutch (even Alex Rodriguez) and they play really well. The Angeles are very good, and the winner of the Philadelphia-Los Angeles Dodgers also will be.

   But for the first time in nine seasons, the Yankees will win it all.

Too many Frances, too few Pearsons

   There aren’t any circumstances under which I’d put two administrators and only three drivers in any hall of fame class. But that’s what NASCAR did Wednesday.

   The organization’s first hall of fame choices include Bill France Sr., who assembled NASCAR, and Bill France Jr., who took over when his father left.

   Brian France, the chairman of the board and CEO of the family business, was not elected.

   But he will be. Bill France Jr., who took a regional sport national, also would have been. He could have waited a year. The first class needs more speed, more daring, more of the drivers who loved the sport and risked what they had to be part of it.

    Specifically the class needs David Pearson (above). Pearson, out of Spartanburg, S.C., won three championships and 105 races. Only Richard Petty, who was elected Wednesday, won more races.

   As dominant as Petty was, Pearson regularly filled his rearview mirror when he wasn’t in front of him. Pearson was a major talent, and he drove as if handling a race car was the one thing he was put on Earth to do.

   It would have been fitting to honor him this week as NASCAR gathers at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Pearson won four races and a staggering 14 poles at the track.

When fools Rush in

   I don't care if Rush Limbaugh buys a small piece of an NFL franchise. He'll be a minority owner, and being part of a minority might be good for him.

   I rarely listen to the guy. I don't understand how so many people have so much time to listen to the radio during the work day. Plus, when I'm driving in the afternoon (in the morning I always listen to the radio) I'm more likely to listen to satellite radio and CDs. 

   I'm the last guy in Charlotte to discover the Avett Brothers, whose latest CD has been impossible to dislodge. So the competition is fierce, and Rush invariably fails to make the cut.

   I don't think Rush knows much about football. When he worked for ESPN in 2003, he took a shot at Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb. Some found his comments racially loaded. I didn't. I found them silly.

   Rush said that McNabb got credit for Philadelphia's success that he didn't deserve. As Jake Delhomme will tell you, quarterbacks always get too much credit and too much blame.

   Rush also accused the media of being "very desirous that a black quarterback can do well."  But by 2003, black quarterbacks no longer were a story. Rush was at least a decade late.

   There was a time when the subject was an issue, a time McNabb would have been shifted to the defensive backfield, a time black athletes were not given the opportunity to run an offense. There also was a time when baseball, boxing and horse racing were more popular in the U.S. than the NFL. By 2003 that time had long passed and the rest of us had moved on.

   But since when are owners required to be football experts?

   Rush's celebrity will detract from the group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams rather than enhance it. But if he somehow slips through and buys a small piece of the franchise so what?

   It's not an issue. It's more of an issue than black quarterbacks were in 2003. But it's not an issue.

  

 

  

Plenty of good seats available

  If this continues, Carolina and Tampa Bay will be winless when they play next week at Raymond James Stadium. The odds of two winless teams playing in week six are, like, really slim. Some Sundays it is a shame that somebody has to lose. Next Sunday it could be a shame that somebody has to win. As of now, the game will be on TV.

Yankees cheat, N.C. State loses and Redskin jerseys are everywhere

   Some quick pregame thoughts:

   If Mark Teixeira had worn a Minnesota uniform when he hit his game-winning walk-off home run Friday, would his shot have been ruled foul? Some seasons I can't stand the Yankees. This isn't one of them. But with all that talent, they don't need help from the umpires, too.

   Spent two hours walking around before the Panthers-Redskins game. I saw more Washington jerseys than Panthers jerseys. The jersey of choice for Washington fans was 47, tight end Chris Cooley. One fan wore a T-shirt that said: Chris Cooley Is My Life Coach. Didn't see any Brad Hoover Is My LIfe Coach T-shirts, but I don't know why.

   Which program is in worse shape, the basketball program at N.C. State or the football program?

   All hail Duke. The Blue Devils were outstanding Saturday against the Wolfpack. Thought I heard some TV guys in the press box at Bank of America Stadium talking about them. Man, they were good, I said. And one of the guys who had been talking said, what? Then he invoked Krzyzewski. 

    Just saw a woman wearing an Adrian Peterson jersey, the Minnesota Adrian Peterson. But, as of 12:41, Carolina jerseys still outnumber Minnesota jerseys. I'm not criticizing Panther fans for their attire. I have no interest in how adult males dress.