http://www.thecharlottepost.com
1C
CI)arlotte ^osit
SPORTS
PHOTO/CAROLINA COBRAS
Former Independence High standout DeAngelo
Lloyd is one of 21 new Carolina Cobras.
Everything’s
different for
AFL Cobras
By Herbert L. White
herb.white@lhecharlotteposi.com
Football season - the indoor kind - starts this
week.
The Carolina Cobras open their second AFL sea
son in Charlotte with a revamped roster that
looks nothing like the group that went 0-16 in
2003. The Cobras reduced its season-opening ros
ter to the league maximum 24 by trading player
and waiving two.
Carolina opens Sunday at the
Dallas Desperados, with the
home opener Feb. 21 against the
Arizona Rattlers.
Carolina traded offensive spe
cialist James Bowden (N.C. A&T)
to the. Orlando Predators for
future considerations and waived
receiver/linebacker D.J.
Humphries, lineman Bryan Ray
and quarterback Charlie
Peterson.
Pelshak
This season’s roster will have some familiar
names. Lineman Troy Pelshak of Charlotte, who
won a Super Bowl ring with the St. Louis Rams
and played at N.C. A&T, was a key offseason
acquisition. The former Garinger High standout
is an AFL rookie, as is lineman DeAngelo Lloyd, a
former Independence High star.
The Cobras will have to make do without offen
sive specialist Bernard Holmes, their best return
ing player. He was placed on the injured list last
week after surgery to repair a slightly tom menis
cus and will miss two games. Last year. Holmes
set franchise single-season records with 20 touch
downs, six 100-yard receiving games and 74 kick
off returns. He also established new marks for
kick return yards (1,546) and all-purpose yards
(2,641).
Single-game, season and group tickets are on
sale starting at $64 per seat. For information, call
((877) 4-COBRAS or log on to www.cobrasfoot-
ball.com.
Williams, Bulls
agree on NBA
contract buyout
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO - Jay Williams, who played one sea
son with the Chicago Bulls before a motorcycle
accident put his NBA career in jeopardy, and the
team agreed on a contract buyout Monday.
Bill Duify, WUliams’ agent, said the buyout was
in the $3 million range. WiUiams had two more
years worth about $7.7 million left on his original
deal.
“No question it’s more than fair,” Duffy said.
“Usually when you cut a deal it hurts both parties,
•but this is great for both parties.”
' Because riding a motorcycle violates the stan-
,dard NBA contract, the Bulls could have termi
nated Williams’ deal after the accident June 19.
^Instead, they put the former Duke star and No. 2
Jiick in the 2002 draft on injured reserve and con
tinued to pay him.
' The buyout allows the Bulls to gain a roster spot
■-and flexibility with the salary cap.
1 WiUiams was riding a new motorcycle June 19
Iwhen the bike got away from him and slammed
into a utUity pole. He was thrown onto a grassy
curb, face down from the waist up, his left leg tilt
ing grotesquely upward.
He severed a main nerve in his leg, fractured his
■pelvis and tore three of the four main ligaments in
his left knee. He spent two weeks at a Chicago
hospital before being transferred to Duke
University Medical Center, where he continues to
rehab, holding onto hope that he can play again.
As a free agent, Williams is free to sign with any
Please see WILLIAMS/2C
PRIMED FOR ANOTHER RUN
REUTERS PHOTO/MIKE SESER
Muhsin Muhammad, who hauled in a Jake Delhomme pass for an 85-yard touchdown In the Super Bowl against New England, will
be the source of much speculation during the offseason. His contract will count for $6 million against the salary cap.
Narrow loss aside, Panthers
headed in the right direction
By Jenna Fryer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Making it to the first Super
Bowl in franchise history
should be enough for the
underdog Carolina Panthers.
Don’t try telling that to the
team, not after it came so close
only to lose 32-29 to the New
England Patriots on Adam
Vinatieri’s 41-yard field goal
with 4 seconds to play Sunday.
The Panthers weren’t even
supposed to make the playoffs,
let alone roll through the post
season with wins over DaUas,
St. Louis and Philadelphia.
StiU, the players weren’t buy
ing it - “almost” is not nearly
good enough.
“There is ’nothing accom
plished if you don’t win,”
“It’s
receiver Steve Smith said. ‘
all or nothing
and right now
we have noth
ing. Our goal
is not to open
anybody’s
eyes, it is to
win champi
onships.”
IVvo years
removed from
a 1-15 season
that had sapped the energy
and enthusiasm out of the
franchise and the community,
the Panthers have embraced
winning and won’t settle for
anything short of a Super
Bowl title.
It .was a quick turnaround
from the bottom of the NFL
Smith
and was led by coach John
Fox, who wasted no time in
rebuilding the confidence of
this Carolina team. He made
the Panthers tough by
installing a blue-coUar work
ethic and making them
believe they were supposed to
■ be in the Super Bowl.
That’s why simply getting
there, only to come out on the
losing end of a back-and-forth
battle in a game they were
never expected to win just isn’t
good enough.
“I can’t say enough about
Coach Fox — he’s given this
team a direction they didn’t
have for a lot of years and
showed them they can win,”
receiver Ricky Proehl said.
“Now they know the feeling of
losing, and it’s something you
don’t want to feel again.”
So Fox and general manager
Marty Humey will likely
waste little time getting to
work on improving the
Panthers the same way they
have done the past two sea
sons. Piece by piece, the two
strengthened a unit that was
just a few key players away
from this tumaroimd.
After drafting defensive end
Julius Peppers two years ago,
they truned attention to the
offense last spring and bol
stered the unit with two of the
best free agent signings in the
NFL this season; Running
back Stephen Davis and quar-
' terback Jake Delhomme.
Please see PANTHERS/2C
Football success brought us all a little closer
C. Jemal
Horton
Don’t tell me that sports are
just games.
Don’t tell me that sports are
irrelevant and that we should
ONLY encourage our kids to be
doctors and scientists and con
cert pianists when they grow
up.
I don’t care how many times
some Stiff Shirt sticks out his
pinky as he’s drinking tea and
tries to say that sports are
meaningless and should be
shoved to the back of our
nation’s consciousness.
Sports matter. Sports can be
good for us — all of us. And
sports can bring people togeth
er like only a handful of activi
ties and occupations can.
Super Bowl XXXVIII, which
featured the now-beloved
Carolina Panthers, is one of
the latest examples of that.
The game was a thrilling, emo
tional, magnificent testament
of all that is good in football
and sports in general.
That game put almost every
person in this city and this
region on the same page. That
game brought a collective hope
to Charlotte. It united us for a
cause unlike any time in the
area’s history
People wore hints of
Panthers paraphernalia to
their places of worship last
week. People who normally
could care less about a football
game - like my wife, who once
asked me, “Did Michael
Jordan just score a touch
down?” - were huddled around
the television hanging on every
play.
That’s the moral in all of this,
in the value of sports: impact.
Sure, the Panthers lost to the
Patriots in the Super Bowl.
Sure, professional football his
tory probably won’t talk twice
about the Panthers when it
comes to the Super Bowl and
overall gridiron greatness.
But you know what?
It simply doesn’t matter.
Yes, people were sad. But
when the game was over, we
paused, looked at our neigh
bors, smiled and thought,
“That was fun.” Suddenly, los
ing wasn’t all that catastroph
ic. The ride Charlotte’s football
team took us on over the last
month or so was a bigger deal.
Now, tell me: When was the
last time in most of our lives
that losing didn’t matter?
Obviously, sports and the
people who play them are falli
ble. There are shameful things
that go on in sports, and some
of it has happened within the
Please see SPORT/2C
Ol
- -r:
#
1i ^