Tom Talks

It's official: Miami fans don't have jobs

At 3:30 p.m. there are more Miami jerseys than Carolina jerseys on the streets and in the parking lots outside Bank of America Stadium. If there's a message, it's that fans of the Dolphins do not have jobs.

   It's this way on Sundays, too. If the visiting team has any kind of following in Charlotte, there are always more fans wearing their jerseys than the jerseys of the Panthers. By kickoff, the Carolina fans usually catch up.

   Great afternoon to be out. The sun finally is shining. People are trying to escape downtown early and get to the stadium early. So far, there's no problem getting in, especially if you're wearing a Miami jersey.

Good game, lots of points, Panthers win

   I admit that the Atlanta result last week surprised me. I didn't expect the Panthers to recover from their painful loss to New Orleans as gracefully as they did.   

   Miami is tough. But the Dolphins rely on inexperienced cornerbacks and an inexperienced quarterback. At home, beneath the lights, I give Carolina a slight edge.

   I see lots of points. I also see the Panthers finishing with more than Miami. Carolina beats the Dolphins by three tonight.

Smith questionable to return

   Steve Smith walked off the field with 1:02 remaining in the first half. He hurt his ribs on a four-yard touchdown reception, and the Panthers say his return is "questionable."

Gross wheeled off field, won't return

   Always hate to see a player leave the field in an air-cast and on a cart. Carolina tackle Jordan Gross was hurt when Fort Mill's Vance Walker, who weighs 307 pounds, fell across his right leg.

  As Gross was loaded onto the cart, several Falcons, among them defensive end John Abraham, offered a fist bump. One by one the Panthers walked over to offer their support, the last of them Jon Beason.

   Gross acknowledged the cheers of fans as the cart reached the five yard line. The injury was to his ankle; that particular cast often implies a break.

I can't stand recruiting

   In a few minutes Harrison Barnes will announce the college he will attend. A 6-6 wing from Iowa, he is considered the top basketball player in his class.

   Meanwhile, a nervous nation waits.

    Ok, that's not true. Bored people await.

   Recruiting is woefully overblown. There's something wrong with getting worked up about where that special little sophomore plans to play basketball or football. I don't trust adults who get hung up on it. They track high school juniors and sophomores and freshmen.

   He's going to Western Carolina. No he's going to UCLA. No he's going to Harvard.

   Excitement!

   Where's the 27th-ranked small forward from South Dakota leaning? How about the 12th ranked Texas tight end? The seventh-grader from Savannah, what about him? The anticipation is unbearable.

   It's like Christmas!

   There's a large segment of the population, at least 60%, that I would encourage to turn off the computer, TV and radio and go outside and walk or run, talk to other humans and breathe fresh air. Recruiting nerds are right up there, or down there, with people who write on message boards.

   Let high school athletes be high school athletes. They'll be introduced to the pressures of big-time athletics soon enough.

    Years ago, Vince Carter, the former North Carolina star who now plays for the Orlando Magic, was a high school phenomenon in Daytona Beach, Fla. Somebody called the Daytona Beach News-Journal, identified himself as me and asked if there was anything new about Carter, any indication of the school to which he was leaning. This went on several times a week for weeks.

   A writer there eventually called me.  He knew me enough to know that I would go to Daytona International Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway, I-77, I-485 and I-85 sit in traffic before I would waste my time calling about something that was Carter's business and not mine.

   Never found out who the guy was, but the newspaper stopped taking his calls. I deduced, however, that he lived in his mom's basement.

  I don't get it. if you love high school sports, go to high school games. But this isn't about high school sports. It's about gossip. I think he's going to North Carolina. No, he's going to Duke. No, he's going to Oklahoma. It almost makes me wish players could go straight from high school to the NBA.

   I would never tell the people hung up on recruiting to get a life because I hate cliches even more than I hate recruiting.

   But as soon as the decision of Harrison Barnes becomes official, I would tell them to go outside and play.

  

 

49ers by five

   I usually make my NFL picks in Sunday's newspaper. But there's a game tonight and I need witnesses. I'll go with San Francisco, a 3-point favorite, by five.

Saints go marching in, Hurricane Ida does not

   A serious woman with seriously un-television-like hair appeared on the flat screen above the lobby bar at the New Orleans hotel Sunday night, and all the customers stopped talking. The subject was not the Saints, who a few hours earlier had rallied to beat the Carolina Panthers. It was Hurricane Ida.

   Although Ida was heading into the Gulf, the storm was expected to veer east and miss New Orleans. But after Katrina, many visitors, as well as the residents working in the bar, are predictably wary.

   In the concierge lounge at the same hotel Monday morning, patrons were transfixed by the televised weather reports.

   Some worried aloud about the status of their flights.

   Some of us did not. 

Last chance

   When the Panthers had to be creative, they weren't. When they had to make a play, they couldn't.

   They had opportunities, Delhomme to Steve Smith and Delhomme to Dwayne Jarrett. But Jarrett back peddled and couldn't grab the pass. Smith went one way and Delhomme's pass another. It's mid-November and Delhomme and Smith apparently ran different plays.

  

  

Fourth quarter blues

   Be interesting to see how long the Panthers stick with their run, run, throw a short pass, run on third-and-long philosophy. The Saints are too good to succumb the way Arizona did. For every mistake the Saints have made, they've offset it with a Drew Brees' pass.

    They abandoned it. Delhomme just threw a pretty deep pass to Dwayne Jarrett, who attracted single coverage, along the right sideline. Jarrett should have caught it. He didn't come close.

   On third and 14 the Panthers didn't run. Delhomme hit Kenneth Moore for 22 yards.

   The Panthers are moving. They have to. New Orleans has outscored opponents 81-18 this season in the fourth quarter.

Luck of the draw

   You know what the Panthers could call on third and long to surprise the other guys? A draw play. Of course, if they wanted to shock the other guys they could throw a forward pass.