What if Peyton Manning had been a Panther?

You may have heard this. Or not. You may have forgotten it. But it's true, and I was reminded of it this week when the Peyton Manning sweepstakes began (Miami, Denver and Washington are apparently among the front-runners among the many suitors hoping to get a chance at Manning, whom the Colts parted ways with this week).

The Panthers once tried hard to make a trade that would have netted them Manning before he ever played an NFL down.

This was in early 1998 before that year's NFL draft. Carolina had Dom Capers as its coach (and he did double duty as the main personnel guy, too). The pre-flameout Kerry Collins was the quarterback (this was six months before the "My heart's not in it" fiasco of the 1998 season, which led to Collins leaving the team and Capers being fired).

By then, Bill Polian (architect of the Panthers' team that made the NFC title game in 1996) had left Carolina to become president of the Colts (in December of 1997). Polian was always enamored of Collins, having drafted him in Carolina out of Penn State. In fact, Polian finally did get an aging Collins again in the 2011 season for the Colts for a brief and unsuccessful tenure as the Colts' starter this past year.

Anyway, back in 1998, the Panthers wanted to trade Collins to Indianapolis and were willing to give up several other assets -- starters, draft picks, basically whatever the Colts wanted within some reason -- to acquire the No.1 pick of the 1998 draft. The two teams had conversations.

And Carolina had its heart set on drafting Manning out of Tennessee with that No.1 pick if the deal could be worked out.

Ultimately, of course, Polian wisely didn't pull the trigger and the trade never happened. The Colts kept the pick, grabbed Manning and had an incredible run during the first decade of the 2000s with Manning as their quarterback.

Instead, Carolina was the one with the itchy trigger finger. After being unable to trade Collins for anything substantive, the Panthers instead shipped two No.1 picks to Washington for the rights to defensive tackle Sean Gilbert in April 1998, which goes down as quite possibly the worst personnel move in Panther history (drafting Rae Carruth in the first round is also a contender).

But what if Carolina had somehow convinced Polian and gotten Manning? What would have happened next?

First of all, I think Capers would have stayed the head coach a lot longer -- there would have been no Collins drama.

Secondly, the whole George Seifert "experiment" might have never happened. A player like Muhsin Muhammad -- who had a very fine NFL career already -- could well have had a Hall of Fame career instead. If Steve Smith had still gotten drafted by the Panthers in 2001, there's no doubt he would have already had a Hall of Fame career (although he might still get there).

And on and on and on. Manning would have transformed the Panthers in many ways and a thousand different decisions would have been made if he had had a 14-year run in Carolina instead of having it in Indianapolis. And maybe Carolina -- which made a Super Bowl in that same decade but lost it -- would have won one (or two) instead.

Henson's wrist isn't broken; UNC wins

ATLANTA – The headline from North Carolina’s 85-69 win over Maryland in an ACC tournament quarterfinal Friday is this: John Henson’s left wrist apparently isn’t broken.

All else was secondary Friday in the top-seeded Tar Heels’ first game of the tourney, although there was much to like if you were a UNC fan. Kendall Marshall set the ACC single-season record for assists during the game. The Tar Heels never trailed. UNC had five players scoring in double figures, all of them scoring from 13 to 15 points.

And James Michael McAdoo (14 points, eight rebounds) had a nice game in 29 minutes after Henson’s first-half fall. Coach Roy Williams said McAdoo had “upgraded” both his work ethic and his attention to detail recently and that he thought McAdoo was the “story of the game” along with Marshall’s record-setting run of assists.

As for Henson’s wrist: Henson went down driving to the basket on a hard fall after a foul by a Maryland player that Williams said “wasn’t a bad play.” Henson started shaking his left wrist immediately. He shot his free throws, came out, went back in and then came out for good, ending up playing only seven minutes and none in the second half.

Williams said Henson had X-rays at Philips Arena and that the doctors and trainers “don’t think it’s a break.”

“He had trouble catching and gripping the basketball,” Williams said. “That left hand is his dominant hand, even though he is right-handed.”

Williams said he would have put Henson back in the game if the ACC Defensive Player of the Year had felt comfortable. Henson will be re-evaluated Friday night and Saturday morning to decide whether he can play in the Tar Heels’ Saturday semifinal.

“Something like this could have happened in practice,” Williams said, “but you do hate for it to happen.”

“We’re hoping for the best and praying it’s not the worst,” said Marshall, who had 13 points and 12 assists in the game.

The Tar Heels did give up 30 points to Maryland’s Terrell Stoglin, the ACC’s leading scorer. But no other Terrapin had more than 11 and Maryland shot 38.7 percent as a team.

Reggie Bullock led the Tar Heels with 15 points as the Tar Heels played plenty well enough without Henson to win. If Henson does return quickly to full strength, this game at least should give the Tar Heels more confidence that they can get along for long stretches without their best defensive player.

Bountygate Part 2 -- the punishments

I read with interest Joe Person's story in today's Charlotte Observer where former longtime Panther safety Mike Minter said that while there were no bounties when he played for Carolina that veteran players did offer cash bonuses for big plays.

Minter said the veteran players, including himself, would "pony up" and award bonuses, particularly for big special-teams plays (special-teamers usually aren't starters and don't make as much as the veterans). Coaches weren't involved in this, which was against NFL rules but from all the stories coming in from around the league also sounds pretty commonplace.

What I'm most interested in now, though, is Part 2 of this sordid affair -- the punishments.

Saints GM Mickey Loomis and coach Sean Payton issued a joint statement Tuesday (they had been silent for far too long) about the bounties, saying they took full responsibility for it happening under their watch and apologizing to owner Tom Benson. I didn't think the statement went far enough, though -- what about apologizing to the players the Saints were purposely trying to hurt?

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to rule on punishments sometime this month, and I think he will come down very hard. I don't ultimately think St. Louis defensive coordinator Gregg Williams (the administrator of the bounty program while with the Saints) will keep his job. Whether he resigns or gets fired or gets suspended for life, I think Williams has to go. His violations were the most blatant.

Loomis and Payton need to at least be fined and suspended for a significant amount of time as well. The players involved -- there were between 22 and 27 of them, according to the NFL -- must be fined for sure and likely the ringleaders suspended.

I think the Saints will also have their 2013 first-round draft choice taken away (they won't have one this season) and their top pick for 2012 taken away too (No.59 overall). Maybe more.

In other words, the punishments will and should be significantly worse than the New England Patriots' Spygate ($750,000 total in fines and a first-round draft pick taken away). And they should come soon -- I think Goodell has tons of information now and don't imagine he will need to wait much longer before lowering the boom and providing a cautionary tale for any other team thinking about trying out a bounty system or even a "cash bonus for big plays" system like the Panthers used to employ, according to Minter.

Davidson win one of best games I have ever seen

My ears are still ringing after watching Davidson's 93-91, double overtime thriller of a win over Western Carolina Monday night in Asheville as the Wildcats won their way into the NCAA tournament.

It was a remarkable game, and I mentioned in my column that I thought it was one of the five best college basketball games I've ever seen. See below for more on that.

Western Carolina looked dead in the water, but made an amazing comeback from 12 points down with two minutes left to tie the score at the end of regulation. Then the first overtime ended in another tie after Davidson star forward De'Mon Brooks saw his turnaround jumper go halfway in and jump back out with a few seconds to go.

Davidson only was assured at the end when Western Carolina's Keaton Cole barely missed a long three. I admire Western going for the win there -- the Catamounts had a stunning tournament, nearly winning four games in four days.

So that got me thinking about the best college basketball games I've ever seen in person, and I want you to think about it too. Limit this to games you saw IN PERSON, not on TV -- so you can't say Duke over Kentucky on Christian Laettner's shot in 1992, for instance, unless you were there. So while that may well be the best college game ever played, I can't put it on my list.

Here's my quick list. I may be forgetting something. But more importantly I want to know what YOUR favorite game you ever saw IN PERSON was. Please put it in the "comments" below or else email me at sfowler@charlotteobserver.com or both. I'm just curious.

My top 5 (in no particular order, I haven't thought about it that hard yet)

-- Davidson comes from 17 points down in the second half to upset Georgetown, 74-70, in the NCAA tournament in 2008 and give full rise to Stephen Curry mania. (He had 30).

-- Wake Forest and Chris Paul outduel North Carolina and Raymond Felton, 119-114, in a wonderful triple OT regular-season game in 2003.

-- Kansas gets a last-second three-pointer from Mario Chalmers to tie the national championship game against Memphis in regulation and then wins in overtime in 2008.

-- UNC outscores Duke 11-0 in the final minutes to edge the Blue Devils, 75-73, in 2005 in Chapel Hill.

-- Davidson edges Western Carolina Monday night in double OT, 93-91.

So what's your own personal favorite?

Did "Bounty-Gate" just shift NFC South balance of power away from Saints?

Kurt Warner is knocked out of a
 game against the Saints in 2010.

The NFL released an absolutely shocking press release today, saying that between 22 and 27 New Orleans Saints defensive players had carried on a "bounty" program from 2009 through 2011, putting money in a pool and then paying it out not only for fumbles and interceptions but also for "cart-offs" ($1,000 when an opposing player was carted off the field) and "knockouts" ($1,500 when an opposing player couldn't return). Bonuses were sometimes doubled or tripled during the playoffs.

The bounty program was apparently supervised by then-defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. Head coach Sean Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis knew about it and did nothing about it apparently. Owner Tom Benson said he didn't know.

Panther wide receiver Steve Smith -- who has had a number of conflicts with Saints' players over the years -- told Pro Football Weekly's Eric Edholm about the Saints' bounty program: "Doesn't surprise me. Wouldn't expect anything less from them."

Said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in a statement: "The payments here are particularly troubling because they involved not just payments for ‘performance,’ but also for injuring opposing players. The bounty rule promotes two key elements of NFL football: player safety and competitive integrity."

The NFL investigated this and now is about to lower the boom. There will be fines. Suspensions. (Williams, now the defensive coordinator with the St. Louis Rams, has admitted his role and will be seriously punished). The Saints face a likely loss of draft picks, too -- the first one they hold in the 2012 draft, though, is only No.59 overall. Here's New Orleans newspaper columnist Jeff Duncan's reaction to the news in an interesting column that predicts the scandal will follow the Saints for years and forever tarnish the Super Bowl they won.

To me this is worse than "Spygate," when New England was caught spying on opposing teams. This flies in the face of all the NFL's safety improvements. The Saints look like they have been caught red-handed and they are about to pay a heavy price.

So will it shift the balance of power away from the Saints? (And as some of the "Scott Says" commenters are saying below, don't you now have to wonder about Roman Harper's late hit on Smith this past season? I'm sure Smith does -- and yes, I know Smith can't exactly take the moral high ground on hitting people, but still that Harper hit was so ridiculous.)

A quicker way for the Saints to turn into a bad team would be for Drew Brees not to re-up with the Saints -- and I think he will eventually re-sign with New Orleans. Remember, this is just about New Orleans defensive players, and the Saints' remarkable offense apparently won't be affected.

But the loss of at least one future first-round draft pick -- which I believe will happen maybe in 2013, and I think this will be a multiple-draft-pick penalty before it's all over -- will damage the Saints. And defensive suspensions will further muddy the water. At the very least, the Saints will be a good team to play early in the season when suspensions would take effect (barring appeals).

Bottom line: The Saints just got clocked. Their feel-good Super Bowl story from 2009 will never feel nearly that good again. But more than that, the balance of power in the NFC is ripe for shifting. Atlanta and Carolina are the two teams most primed to do something about it if New Orleans falters.

And you know what? If all this is true -- and the NFL's report certainly makes it sound that way -- I hope someone does take over for the Saints. Because what they allegedly did is absolutely disgusting. I'm not naive enough to think this doesn't happen elsewhere in the NFL -- although I have never heard of such a thing with the Panthers -- but the Saints' level of blatant rule violation is shocking.

In a statement released by the Rams, Williams (the "Pay-for-Pain" administrator and also an occasional contributor to the Saints' bounty pool of money, according to the NFL) said: "It was a terrible mistake, and we knew it was wrong while we were doing it. Instead of getting caught up in it, I should have stopped it. I take full responsibility for my role. I am truly sorry. I have learned a hard lesson and I guarantee that I will never participate in or allow this kind of activity to happen again."

Do you believe him? "We knew it was wrong while we were doing it..." Hmmm..... And so why didn't Williams stop it again? (Incidentally, I imagine Williams is done as St. Louis's defensive coordinator -- he will "resign" or be fired or something after this. At least he certainly should be).

Now why wasn't it stopped in New Orleans? Because it was working, of course. That's the sad part. The Saints won the Super Bowl when the bounty program was apparently at its height.

Why 8 points in 17 seconds is still No.1 comeback in Duke-UNC rivalry

I did a video that you can see here with my choices for top 5 all-time UNC-Duke comebacks in this remarkable 233-game series. There are a lot of great highlights of the plays I describe in the video. But if you just want the quick list, here it is, counting down from No.5 to No.1:

No.5 -- FABULOUS FRED. Obscure Duke reserve Fred Lind comes off the bench, scores 16 points, grabs nine rebounds, forces one of the overtimes with a late basket and ultimately is Duke's star in the Blue Devils' 87-86 triple OT win in 1968.

No.4 -- MARVIN WILLIAMS' OLD-FASHIONED 3-POINT PLAY. In 2005, the Tar Heels score the game's final 11 points to come back from nine down with 2:40 to play to edge Duke, 75-73. Roy Williams has said numerous times that he has never heard the Smith Center louder than when Williams grabbed a missed Raymond Felton free throw, scored and got fouled himself to score the winning points.

No.3 -- CAPEL'S 30-FOOTER. In 1995, Duke wasn't very good. UNC was. But the Blue Devils rose up, overcame an early 17-point deficit, then came back from -- yes -- eight points down with 17 seconds to go in the first overtime. The last 3 came when Capel nailed a running 30-footer -- still one of the most famous shots in the series. UNC won in double OT, however, 102-100.

No.2 -- RIVERS OVER ZELLER. This was just last month, so you remember it well. It either haunts you or sustains you, depending on which shade of blue you favor. UNC was up 10 with less than three minutes left, but kept missing free throws. Rivers nailed a long three over Tyler Zeller at the buzzer -- in Chapel Hill! -- to give Duke an amazing 85-84 victory.

No.1 -- EIGHT POINTS IN 17 SECONDS. To me, this comeback remains the series' best, because it came without the benefit of the three-pointer. UNC was down eight to Duke with 17 seconds to go. But the Tar Heels kept scoring, stealing the ball and scoring again. Still, they needed a missed Duke free throw and a BANKED Walter Davis shot from about 30 feet to force the overtime, which they then won.

A note about No.1 -- a high school star named Phil Ford was watching the game on TV and was so disgusted when UNC fell so far behind in the final minute that he went outside to wash the family car. He missed the entire comeback.

Should Carolina Panthers go after Hines Ward?

So the Pittsburgh Steelers announced plans to release wide receiver Hines Ward yesterday, and just like clockwork, I've been getting emails and tweets from Panther fans wondering if Ward would be a good pickup for Carolina this offseason.

In a word, no.

And that's not to diminish what Ward has done. He's been one of the best blocking wide receivers in the league, he caught 1,000 passes in Pittsburgh, he was a four-time Pro Bowler, a Super Bowl MVP and even the "Dancing with the Stars" champion.

But Ward is also turning 36 next week. His body has taken 14 years of NFL punishment. He only caught 46 passes for 381 yards and two TDs in Pittsburgh last season. His high point -- a 67-yard game -- came in Week 1, and it went slowly downhill from there. Simply, he's lost his burst.

That's not to say Ward wouldn't work somewhere as an elder statesman//third receiver type. Maybe he even ends up back in Pittsburgh at a lesser salary.

But the Panthers already have filled the role of "aging wide receiver who can still play" -- it's played by Steve Smith every week. Smith is younger and far more explosive than Ward. The Panthers don't need Ward, Terrell Owens or Randy Moss -- they need to develop some youth at the position that will be in Charlotte a long time and go along with quarterback Cam Newton. (Smith's contract expires after the 2012 season, and what happens next is anyone's guess, although he would like to stay in Charlotte and the Panthers should make every effort to keep the best player they have ever had).

David Gettis and Brandon LaFell will likely be the second and third receivers this season, but Carolina still needs another guy. Legedu Naanee started a lot over LaFell last season because he was such a good blocker and dirty-work guy. Maybe he comes back. Maybe it's someone else. Maybe Carolina lucks into Justin Blackmon at No.9 in April's NFL draft,a lthough I don't think he will last that long.

But Ward? I wish him well and I admire his good work over the years, but I think it would be a mistake for the Panthers to make that investment.

-- One additional college basketball note: As you likely know, Duke and UNC play each other Saturday night at Duke for the ACC regular-season championship and the No.1 seed in next week's ACC tournament.

The Observer will post a video with some really cool highlights on Friday morning at CharlotteObserver.com where I will be picking my Top 5 All-time Comebacks in this 233-game series (Austin Rivers' three-pointer is in there, but I won't say where). So watch for that -- the column to go along with the video will also be on the site and in the newspaper in the next 48 hours.