The Carolina Panthers are rolling as they head into the NFL’s golden anniversary Super Bowl. Here are some leftover thoughts from their NFC Championship blowout and a sneak peak at Super Bowl 50.
-The Panthers completely dismantled the Arizona Cardinals and emerged from Sunday as the Super Bowl favorites with one of the most dominating performances in championship game history. Carolina scored an NFC Championship record 49 points while out-gaining the Arizona Cardinals by almost 200 yards and forcing a mind-blowing seven turnovers. The Panthers humiliated a well-balanced 14-3 Cardinals team that was considered by many to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender. And they had fun doing it. The number one seeded Panthers have spent the 2015 season turning NFL Sundays into impromptu frat parties, complete with dancing, dabbing, pictures, prize giveaways and unbridled celebration. And nobody is enjoying the party more than quarterback Cam Newton. Sunday, Newton looked nothing like a guy with the hopes and expectations of an entire region resting on his broad shoulders, and instead looked like someone playing a game of pickup football with his college buddies at the local park. Cam Newton and the Panthers are loose, hungry and playing with a confidence that would make Muhammad Ali blush.
-Carolina has the best record in football and if they win the Super Bowl they will finish the year 18-1. Only two other teams, the ‘84 49ers and the ‘85 Bears, have won the Super Bowl with an 18-1 record. They have a league high 10 Pro Bowlers, the presumed 2015 NFL MVP (Cam Newton) and a Defensive Player of the Year candidate (Luke Kuechly). In 6 of their 8 postseason quarters, the Panthers have outscored their opponents 80-15 and in the regular season they outscored their opponents by 192 points, which would be the highest point differential by a Super Bowl champion in over 15 years. Amid all the Brady/Manning hoopla and all the talk about how nobody wanted to play the Seahawks, we may have overlooked a Panthers team that is slowly building one of the strongest resumes in recent history.
-Before the season the Panthers odds to win the Super Bowl: 60-1
-Carson Palmer has been hands down the most disappointing player of the 2015 NFL postseason. Palmer entered the postseason as an MVP candidate and exited the postseason as a laughingstock. In two playoff games the Cardinals quarterback had 6 interceptions, 3 fumbles and posted a 67.1 QB rating. In both games he looked timid and unsure. On the nervous meter Palmer’s demeanor fluctuated somewhere between Tony Eason and a baby deer.
-Do you think Bengals coach Marvin Lewis was watching his former quarterback underperform in the playoffs and thinking, “I taught that boy well.”
-You gotta love Karma. The Panthers get rid of gun-toting, woman-beating, bad-rapping, uber douchebag Greg Hardy and they make the Super Bowl. The Cowboys give Hardy millions of dollars and their Pro Bowl wideout breaks his foot, their Pro Bowl QB breaks his shoulder, and they finish 4-12. Like I said, you gotta love Karma.
-Did you happen to catch Dan LeBatard’s idiotic comments about Cam Newton? Here’s a quick summary: Basically LeBatard thinks racists want Cam Newton to lose the Super Bowl because he is a black quarterback, and while Doug Williams is a black quarterback that already won the Super Bowl, that didn’t count because Doug Williams wasn’t a real black guy but rather just some Uncle Tom that was “palatable” to white America. Cam Newton on the other hand is a real black guy because he wears Beats by Dre headphones and likes to dance after he scores touchdowns. Or something like that.
I actually used to like Dan LeBatard, before he became a self-righteous windbag that sees racism in virtually every sports story that he covers. What’s ironic is that Dan LeBatard’s awful TV show, ‘Highly Questionable’, is one of the most racially insensitive shows on television, with every episode reducing his father, who is a co-host, to an absurd Latin caricature.
-There might not be anybody that will enjoy his two weeks in Santa Clara more than Panthers CB Robert McClain. McClain was cut in training camp by the Patriots and spent most of the season unemployed and watching NFL games from his living room. He was signed in December by Carolina after starting CB Charles Tillman hurt his knee and in two weeks will be playing football in front of more than 100 million people. His teammate Cortland Finnegan was also out of football before he signed with the Panthers in late November. The NFL is typically the only sport where guys literally off the street can join a roster in-season and play a significant role on a championship team.
-It turns out football isn’t McClain’s only talent. During those stretches when he isn’t on an NFL roster he likes to pass the time drawing. His artwork actually ain’t bad. You can check it out at his web site by clicking here.
-The Panthers other starting cornerback, Josh Norman, has his own rags-to-riches back story. In 2008 he was an unknown walk-on for Coastal Carolina University. In 2015 he was chosen as a first team NFL All-Pro.
-You won’t find a bigger contrast at quarterback than the Super Bowl 50 matchup between Peyton Manning and Cam Newton. Newton is a young, brash athletic specimen. Manning is old, humble and, how do I put this delicately, athletically awkward. Newton represents the NFL’s future, Manning is, as he told Belichick, probably on his last rodeo. Newton is just as comfortable inside the pocket as he is outside of the pocket. When Manning leaves the pocket he looks about as comfortable as Kim Kardashian at a spelling bee. Newton is a true dual threat, rushing for 636 and 10 touchdowns in 2015. When Manning runs he looks like a baby giraffe dragging a piano. Cam Newton was arguably the best quarterback in the NFL for 2015 and is the focal point of Carolina’s offense. Peyton Manning was arguably the worst starting quarterback in the NFL in 2015 and has been reduced to a supporting role in Denver’s offense. Newton loves to improvise. Manning wants to know where he’s throwing the ball before it is even snapped. Newton has never played in a Super Bowl; Super Bowl 50 will be Manning’s 4th. And yes Dan LeBatard, Cam Newton is black, and Peyton Manning is whiter than a Donald Trump rally.
-The Cardinals’ seven turnovers in the NFC Championship were the most by a team in a playoff game since 2001, when Green Bay had eight turnovers against the St Louis Rams – The same Rams team that the Patriots would eventually upset in the Super Bowl. In the Rams/Packers game, turnover machine Brett Favre threw 6 interceptions. This was the type of game that the fawning national media conveniently used to ignored when they covered Favre.
-We have all seen the millions of ads they are running for that new movie ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’. I have never been much of a superhero comic book guy but can somebody please explain to me how this will be any kind of fight. Superman can fly, has superhuman strength, X-Ray vision and, if his nickname is accurate, is apparently made of steel. Not to mention he can do that circle the earth and reverse time thing he did in the first movie. Batman is just some guy in a rubber suit. On paper this appears to be quite the mismatch…….kinda like Carolina/Denver.
-All-Pro Panthers’ linebacker Thomas Davis broke his arm against Arizona but vows he will play in the Super Bowl. Not surprising, considering this is Davis’ 11th season in the NFL and he is probably assuming this could be his last chance to play on sports biggest stage. Naturally all of this has conjured up memories of Rams defensive lineman Jack Youngblood, who played in Super Bowl XIX against the Pittsburgh Steelers with a broken leg. Jack Youngblood has to be on the short list of best football names ever.
-Boston College’s own Luke Kuechly finished the regular season with one career touchdown in 61 games. In this year’s postseason he has already scored two touchdowns.
-This will be the Denver Broncos eight Super Bowl appearance which ties them with the Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots for the most in NFL history. It is amazing to think of how close New England was to being number one on that list, when you consider that, as recently as the early 90s, the Patriots were nothing more than an NFL punchline. (Google: “Victor Kiam”, “Lisa Olson”, “Patriot Missle”, “Dick McPherson” or “Rod Rust” if you don’t believe me).
-Cam Newton is the most compelling player of the 2015 postseason right down to his footwear. Check out these custom made bad boys that Cam Newton wore during warmups before the NFC Championship. If you look closely, you will see the shoes are decked out with the names of his Panthers teammates.
-What the Panthers have accomplished in 2015 is even more amazing if you consider that they lost their best WR, Kelvin Benjamin, before the season even started. They were already thin at wideout and losing a 6’5” receiver who had over 1,000 yards receiving as a rookie was supposed to be a death blow to their Super Bowl chances.
-You are going to hear quarterback Doug Williams’ name mentioned a lot over the next 10 days. Not only was he the first black starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl, Williams is also the answer to a great Super Bowl trivia question: Who is the only quarterback ever to start and win a Super Bowl that did not win any regular season games as a starter that same year? Prior to the postseason, Doug Williams was 0-2 as a starter for the ‘87 Redskins.
-If the favored Panthers (-5.5) defeat the Broncos next Sunday, and if Cam Newton is eventually named NFL MVP for the 2015 season, Newton will become part of a very small and exclusive club. He will join Marcus Allen as the only football players ever to win a Super Bowl, a National Championship, a Heisman Trophy and an NFL MVP. Marcus Allen also has a Super Bowl MVP award in his trophy case. It is worth noting that future Hall-of-Fame DB Charles Woodson accomplished everything on that list but the MVP, however, he did win NFL Defensive Player of the Year which is considered by many to be the equivalent of the defensive MVP.
On to Super Bowl 50.