Tom Talks

8 fumbles, 8 fumbles lost

    East Carolina Pirates lost their third fumble of third quarter. For evening, the Pirates have fumbled four times and lost them all. South Carolina has fumbled four times and lost them all. Each of USC's was in the first half.

      No longer is it a story when a team fumbles. It's a story when they don't.

    Coaches just put in a call to Carolina Panther running back Mike Goodson. Mike, what are we doing wrong? Please work with us, Mike. For the love of all that's holy, please help us, Mike.

       Goodson fumbles only, like, once every other game.

       

ECU 24, USC 21

    Six fumbles so far in ECU-USC game, each of them lost. Gamecocks, who lost four in the first half, recovered the most recent. Drove 34 yards in four plays for the touchdown. They trail the Pirates 24-21.

    Sloppy game, but highly entertaining.

Panthers cut, Gamecocks fumble

    Watching ECU-USC and monitoring Panther cuts. Panthers  released three running backs -- former starting fullback Tony Fiammetta and running backs Tyrell Sutton and Josh Vaughan. Wrote about Vaughan this morning. He can play. So can Sutton. Hope they get the opportunity.

      Meanwhile, down on the turf, USC quarterback Connor Shaw just lost a fumble after a scramble. Had reached the ECU 19 on opening drive.

College football in downtown Charlotte

   USC and ECU fans have been tailgating since before noon. College St. full of fans five hours before kickoff. Getting to the stadium this afternoon a mess. Took almost an hour longer than usual. If I were mean, I'd say that a lot of fans aren't accustomed to paved roads. But I'm not mean. I'm nice. There's no traffic control.

    Atmosphere cool outside the stadium. Fans congregating with their own beneath tents and banners and flags. They must be having a great time. Game begins in 10 minutes and Bank of America Stadium is little more than half full.

Game is an exhibition, but Panthers' Steve Smith is profound anyway

    Asked Steve Smith about a Panther I'm going to write about who is on the bubble.

     "That's life," Smith told me. "It's no different for everybody else in this locker room."

     I said, "Yeah. Right."

     He said, "As soon as you stop believing that, you're gone."

     Profound quote for an exhibition game.

An entertaining exhibition game. Who knew?

   Quick hits.

    Guy who scored the weaving 50-yard TD for Pittsburgh, Jonathan Dwyer, doesn't even have his own number. He shares #27 with Niles Brinkley. Old NFL saying: A team should never be beaten by a guy who doesn't even have his own number. Don't know who said it first. Halas, probably.

     Armanti Edwards caught a ball over the middle from Derek Anderson, but cornerback Donovan Warren stripped it out of his hands. Where did Armanti play? Appalachian State. Where did Warren play? Michigan. Wolverine revenge.

     If Carolina's regular season is as entertaining as the first half of the exhibition game with Pittsburgh, season will be a blast. Steelers lead 17-14 with 4:44 to play in the first half.

Welcome to Pittsburgh south

    I really admire the Pittsburgh fans. Ran into a few thousand of them on my way from the Observer to Bank of America Stadium tonight.

     They understand. They understand football. They understand having a good time. They understand that they can like their team and yet not hate the world.

    I brought my older kid to a game in  Pittsburgh in 1999, left him in the bleachers, in the snow, while I watched from the press box. Hey, I was working.

     As long as he didn't cheer too loudly for the visitors, fans took care of him.

    I like the city, the people, the food and the football tradition. If they want to turn downtown Charlotte into Pittsburgh south, that's fine, too.

     Of course, when I was up in Pittsburgh for a regular-season game last December, I saw Panther jerseys. There were two Steve Smiths and a Julius Peppers.

 

 

 

Chris Johnson rich and wrong

    Glad to see that Chris Johnson signed a contract extension with Tennessee. The man is thrilling to watch.

     But he's less than honest. He sent a Tweet the other day criticizing fake Tennessee fans and adding: "I don't have a regular job so don't compare me to you and I can care less if uthink I'm greedy."

     If Johnson could care less about those fans, why would he write about them?

     If you don't care what people think you don't waste your time thinking about them. And you don't Tweet about them.

     We all know people who love to tell you that they don't care what others think. If they really didn't care, they wouldn't tell you.

   

Dale Earnhardt Jr. stays the course

    The five-year contract extension Dale Earnhardt Jr. signed with Rick Hendrick was inevitable. Earnhardt is not the best driver in NASCAR, but he is the most popular. Along with competing for championships, the sport is about selling products.

     Although Earnahardt has yet to win a title, or a race since joining Hendrick in 2008, he will make the Chase most years, and he eventually will cross a finish line first. He doesn't have the talent Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch do, but who does?

      Junior's detractors won't care about this. But of all the star athletes I've been around, the athletes whose popularity is bigger than their sport, the athletes everybody knows of and notices, Earnhardt is the least affected.

    He just goes about his life without airs, without pretension.

    Junior will win a race. And much of NASCAR, including those of us who have spent time around him, will be thrilled.