Jimmy Clausen Interview

Jimmy Clausen didn’t have the kind of season he envisioned when he was drafted last season. For that matter, I don’t think the Carolina Panthers expected to go 2-14 either. He was drafted to come in and sit on the sidelines and learn behind Matt Moore, but that was short-lived when Moore was injured in the fourth quarter of the first game of the season. Clausen came into the game and quickly realized he was overwhelmed at how fast the game is played in the NFL. He played in 13 games, starting 10 of those, throwing three touchdowns to nine interceptions, completing 58% of his passes, which by the way was the worst of any qualified passer. I guess it doesn’t help much when Carolina’s roster is filled with a bunch of young players, but still, that isn’t an excuse for such a bad season. After drafting three quarterbacks last season, it looks as though the Panthers are forced to draft another one because Moore and Clausen haven’t shown any promise.

Jimmy Clausen joined WQAM in Miami on the Michael Irvin Show to talk about what his rookie season in the NFL was like, if Carolina has a solid group of young players that to build upon to make a run at a Super Bowl in the coming years, and whether he was ready to play when he became the starting quarterback last season.

http://sportsradiointerviews.com/2011/02/25/jimmy-clausen-carolina-panthers-quarterback-nfl-draft-combine/

Cam Newton, Amateurism And The NCAA / What's Wrong With Paying Them

In the wake of the Cam Newton controversy and AgentGate, a number of people have talked about paying players "fair market value" for taking the field. This series will look at why they're wrong, why amateurism is important, and how to fix the problem.

Part I Of III: The Problem with Paying Players

The story that roiled college football for the entire 2010-11 season started simply enough. It was July 15, and the season was a month and a half away. The (Raleigh) News & Observer had a story about one of the expected contenders in the always wide-open ACC.
The NCAA is investigating two University of North Carolina football players in connection with possible improper involvement with sports agents, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

Within days, two of the expected contenders for the SEC -- Alabama and dark horse South Carolina -- were also roped into the burgeoning investigation of agents' ties to college players. Unrelated stories about agents and players at Florida and Georgia also emerged. Before the season had begun, the complicated relationship between colleges, players and amateurism was shaping up to be one of the off-field issues of the year.

http://www.teamspeedkills.com/2011/2/21/1929511/cam-newton-agents-paying-players-ncaa-issue

CBA Uncertainty Forces Personnel Folks To Keep Open Minds

The reality of the NFL's labor dispute has the owners on one side and the players on the other. And in between are the league's "football people", the coaches and personnel men who put the teams together.While the CBA issue has simmered, those folks have sat on the sideline. For them, unlike just about anyone else, it's been business as usual to this point.

But if we reach March 4 without a new deal, everything changes. No free agency, no minicamps, no OTAs, and no sign of the normal spring routine for the league's scouts, coaches and personnel executives until there's a CBA. "We're operating like we're going to be ready to go on March 4," one NFC general manager said. "It's been business as usual.
We're having our free agent meetings, our draft meetings, at the exact same time we always have, because until March 4 happens, we don't know that it will be different. And you usually need deadlines to settle these types of things.

"Talk to me in May, and I'll tell you how different it is. Right now, we're doing the same thing we have."

What does that mean?

Full Story.......................

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81e60726/article/cba-uncertainty-forces-personnel-folks-to-keep-open-minds?module=HP_spotlight

Time To Bench Richardson From Bargaining Game

I have a Valentine’s Day message for Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, and I’m not quite sure how to deliver it while honoring the spirit of the holiday. Then again, as my colleague Jason Cole reported Sunday, Richardson could probably use some lessons on comportment and politesse, so I’m going to go ahead and spit it out bluntly.

Hey, Grumpy Grumplestein – why the long face? And is there any way we can get you to step away from the increasingly rancorous negotiating sessions between the owners and the NFL Players Association in the hope of getting a deal done sometime this calendar year?

Richardson, as Cole reported, copped a condescending attitude toward star quarterbacks Peyton Manning(notes) and Drew Brees(notes) in a Feb. 5 bargaining session in Dallas – the day before Super Bowl XLV. I’ve since spoken with two people who witnessed the interaction and gotten a more detailed report of what went down.

CARRY ON

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ms-richardsonnfl021411

Don't Panic Over NFL Labor Talks ... Yet

Oh my goodness!! It’s over!! Talks broke down between the owners and players!! Reports say the two sides are miles apart. Are you reading these statements? There will never be a deal!! No football in 2011!!

Let’s all just slow down and take a deep breath. Actually, make that multiple deep breaths. It is going to be a long, emotional, zany, frustrating couple of weeks.
Lucky for you, I have great editors at FOXsports.com, who suggested that I write a fans’ guide to the labor situation heading up until March 4. We will attack it with a “Joe Six Pack” approach. We will tell you what to look for and when to look for it; when to ignore the madness and when to go absolutely bonkers.

DON'T FRET, WE GOT IT ALL
Catch the Super Bowl but miss some of the commercials? Check out all the winners and losers here.

Grab a cold one. Take a seat. I’ll walk you through the next four weeks.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/nfl-labor-negotiations-when-to-panic-021111

Why Football Matters And Other Thoughts From My Introduction To The New Book 'Going Beyond'

After the close of the NFL football season, I thought it would be fitting for me to share some insights I recently gathered into watching professional football. They are put of my introduction to sports writer Robert Gilbert's fantastic ebook Going Beyond: Vision, The NFL, and the 2010 Carolina Panthers. Purchase the book at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. My complete introduction is as follows..............

Proverbs 29:18 warns readers that "where there is no vision, the people perish." It may seem dubious to begin a book about football with Biblical wisdom. The connection, however, between football and spirituality, philosophy, and identity is not murky. To both fans, and anyone with the semblance of an imagination, the battles waged, blood shed, victories won, dreams lost, and bones broken on the gridiron are the materials necessary for building a house of shelter from the world where virtues, such as courage, sacrifice, and fairness, along with a shared sense of purpose, are difficult to find.

CARRY ON..............

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/beyond-borders/2011/02/why-football-matters-and-other-thoughts-from-my-introduction-to-the-new-book-going-beyond.html

NFL Greed Left No Room For The Fans

The N.F.L. owners had best be careful.

The league has reached a point of popularity and profitability that can be blinding. It happens to star players, and it can happen to leagues as well.

Instead of celebrating a great Super Bowl game and a breakthrough performance by Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers or Mike McCarthy’s first Super Bowl ring, Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday was left to explain how the big, bad N.F.L. had run out of seats at its crown-jewel event.
A number of sections of temporary seating at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex., were not completed in time for Sunday’s game. As a result, more than 1,000 exasperated fans couldn’t sit in the seats they had tickets for and of those, and hundreds were left to stand and watch on television screens inside a club at the stadium.

Goodell took pains to point out that the Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was not responsible for the fiasco.
“We put on this event,” Goodell said. “This is a responsibility of the N.F.L.”
For the Super Bowl, the league

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/sports/football/08rhoden-nfl.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Reasons To Believe In Carolina

It looks like party-crashing. Danny Morrison is representing the worst team in the NFL at the biggest football game in the world. Fortunately, they didn't make him bring a covered dish. Either the Packers or Steelers will win only one fewer game in February than the Carolina Panthers won all season.

But Morrison, in his second year as Panthers president, more than belongs at Super Bowl XLV inside Cowboys Stadium. As athletic director at Texas Christian University, he helped the "North Texas" plan for tonight's big game. There is hope for "our" geographically friendly pro football team, much of it tied to Morrison's resume.

He is a 57-year-old proven builder. Everything Morrison touched as Wofford athletic director, Southern Conference commissioner and at TCU steadily improved.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/feb/06/reasons-to-believe-in-the-panthers/

Anatomy Of A Champion / Green Bay VS Pittsburgh

By Scott Garbarini, NFL Editor

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Let Super Bowl XLV be a lesson to you, Jerry Jones. Hope you learned something as well, Dan Snyder. Hey Al Davis, it's time to pay attention to how a commitment to excellence is achieved in the 21st century.
The teams that will be taking up residence in Jones' palatial Cowboys Stadium in a couple of weeks share more than just a rich history of past glory. The Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers each took remarkably similar paths to this year's title game, resisting the knee-jerk, quick-fix philosophies identified with the Cowboys, Redskins and Raiders of the world in favor of a build-from-within approach that's true to the stable, unflashy nature of these two old-guard franchises.

Of the 53 players on Green Bay's active roster for Sunday's NFC Championship bout with the Chicago Bears, a mere seven began their careers as draft picks of other teams. The Packers eschew free agency more than just about every other NFL team, instead using the draft as their primary source of collecting and cultivating talent.

Full Story & Comments

http://carolinapanthercoalition.com/showthread.php?p=118005#post118005

Randle El Knows Where Panthers' Edwards Is

ARLINGTON, Texas

Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Antwaan Randle El does not know Armanti Edwards, but he knows of him.
"He was the one that beat Michigan that year?" Randle El asked.
Yes, and the one trying to make the transition Randle El did nine years ago, from decorated college quarterback to successful NFL wideout.
Edwards' 2007 victory in Ann Arbor with Appalachian State put him on the radar, and his athleticism and upside prompted the Carolina Panthers to trade this year's second-round pick to draft him in the third round last April.

CARRY ON

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/02/01/2028824/randle-el-knows-where-edwards.html