Sports - January 2004

NFC Champions Panthers are Super Bowl bound

Published January 19, 2004

Grandmother’s 83rd birthday and Carolina making it to the big game makes Sunday once in a lifetime

By JOHN MARK BROOKS, Staff Writer

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This might be a once-in-a-lifetime situation, but if so let’s just enjoy it.

Our beloved Panthers have made it to Super Bowl XXXVIII, but that wasn’t the only reason it was once in a lifetime to me.

Let me explain. My grandmother, my family and myself celebrated my grandmother’s (Trudy Mullen) 83rd birthday on Sunday.

After an afternoon of arguing with my uncle (Marcus Mullen), watching my grandmother open presents and eating breakfast at night, it was game time.

I didn’t even think about leaving my grandparents’ (Trudy and Lester) house. Instead, I watched Jake Delhomme lob a ball up 24 yards to Muhsin Muhammad in the end zone and was surprised to see that all-world safety Brian Dawkins didn’t get turned around.

That was of course the first Carolina Panthers’ touchdown. I also watched Duce Staley drop a pass down the field early in the game that was a possibly touchdown if he caught it… or at least a big play. These were early indicators things were going the Panthers’ way.

I had expected to have a guy’s night at my house, order a pizza and enjoy a hype night of football, but instead I got my grandparents and my mom? Yes, the high fives might have been a little softer and the celebration not quite as loud, but there is no place on the face of the earth I would’ve rather been.

The biggest indicator of the Panthers’ superiority was Donovan McNabb getting peppered by the Carolina front four in the first half. Let me say I don’t (or nobody should) like that McNabb got hurt for a lot of different reasons, but that could’ve been the most instrumental reason the Panthers won.

Another undeniable reason the Cardiac Cats were able to pull it out was the play of the extinguisher Ricky Manning.

The 5’8” Manning (and yes he really is 5’8”) recorded three interceptions in the regular season. He had one great game against Marvin Harrison (an interception on an attempted screen and a forced fumble) and a touchdown against the New York Giants in the regular season finale, but there was no foreshadowing of what was to come.

We all know what has come to pass… the three interceptions last night and the clutch left handed interception against the Rams. He said he wasn’t scared of Phila’s receivers and his play backed it up. If you talk, you better back it up (just ask Simeon Rice from earlier in the season).

To me, though, the biggest play was Deshaun Foster’s one-yard touchdown run. This play was a microcosm of the Panthers’ season.

On the run, Foster shed four or five Eagle defenders and with it demonstrated the determination and perseverance of his team. On the play, former Western Carolina standout Brad Hoover had an initial block on Dawkins, then got back up, and after Foster had broken three tackles on his own knocked one of the Eagles off Foster and pushed his halfback into the end zone.

When the Panthers went on their lone losing skid you could hear the whispers in the Charlotte area.

“Here, we go again… they’re going to blow it— might not even make the playoffs.”

But just like Hoover, the Panthers got back up and said we’re not finished yet… we’re going to finish what we started.

North Lincoln women’s basketball coach Mark Lackey was blown away by the run.

“That was the best two-yard run I’ve seen in the NFL all year. What a confidence builder that is for a running back like Deshaun because he’s relatively young back in the NFL, but the weight of the world is going to be on his shoulders in a couple of years,” he said.

That play led me to believe that Carolina had done it, but anybody that’s watched the NFL this year knows that anything can happen. So, I wasn’t convinced…not until there was no more time on the clock.

I didn’t finish watching the game at my grandparents’ house, but as the clock ticked to zero I celebrated with them, my mom and sister and several friends over the phone.

I could’ve discussed with you several more plays or several additional players (like Brentson Buckner who had two sacks or Reggie Howard who locked down the other corner position), but I chose not to. Instead, I chose to share with you what an 83 year old lady and the NFL have in common.

Regardless, of what happens in Houston, the Panthers and my grandmother and her loving and caring spirit will be intertwined for the rest of my life, and that even more so than the win, is once-in-a-lifetime. The day one of my best friends and my favorite team became one.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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