Who's tougher to tackle, DeAngelo or Stewart?

I couldn't get quite everything I wanted to into this Jon Beason column that I wrote for today's Charlotte Observer.

All the stuff in this column was from a one-on-one interview I conducted with the Panthers' third-year Pro Bowl linebacker after Beason spoke to several hundred members of Charlotte's Touchdown Club, the excellent organization that has been a wonderful booster for football at all levels around here for many years.

During Beason's speech to the TD Club that preceded our interview, however, he did answer a couple of questions from audience members that I thought were interesting enough to put in this blog.

One questioner asked, "Who's tougher to tackle, DeAngelo Williams or Jonathan Stewart?"
Beason picked... drum roll, please.... Stewart.

"Like tackling a wall," Beason said of Stewart.

Beason said in his answer that DeAngelo was a more polished running back, that he was better at finding and using his holes. But he said he always liked his chances against a "scatback" like DeAngelo, a player who uses his speed and explosiveness (much like Beason does) to excel rather than raw power, which is more of Stewart's game.

Beason's opinion of Stewart was that he hadn't come close to fulfilling all of his potential yet.

The second question was sillier: An audience member noted that Beason had a dazzling smile and asked if those were all his real teeth?

Beason flashed that dazzling smile and said that no, they weren't. (And you'll find that to be the case for many pro football players, who lose or chip teeth in one violent collision or another through the years).

Beason said once he signed his contract as a rookie and got a signing bonus that he "decided to get my teeth fixed."