In Charlotte, Seinfeld riffs and rips on NASCAR, golf

I went to Jerry Seinfeld's live show Thursday night at Ovens Auditorium, and it was fantastic. The Observer's Theoden Janes does a fine job with an overall review of the 85-minute show here, but I thought I'd point out a couple of sports-related jokes Seinfeld made in this blog.

First of all, Seinfeld is no big fan of either golf or NASCAR. He had a funny bit on golf where he said it was the ultimate "avoidance" act by a father, that "golf" should really stand for "Get Out, Leave Family." (Seinfeld claims that fathers have only two real instincts compared to the many a mother has -- one is to shout "Daddy's home" and expect much bowing when they arrive home each day, and the other is to figure out ways to avoid the family shortly after getting back).

Seinfeld said his friends keep telling him he should play golf because it's a "challenging" game, which Seinfeld said wasn't a good enough reason to play anything.

"Challenging?" he said. "It would also be challenging to try to throw a Tic Tac from 100 yards into a shoebox. But that doesn't mean I want to do it, or that I want to stand around with the Tic Tac pro and discuss whether I should throw an orange or a wintergreen."

As for NASCAR, the sport wasn't part of Seinfeld's regular routine. But for his encore, Seinfeld took a few questions from the audience. (On one, a man asked the comedian if his three children were all from the "same woman" -- his wife for 12 years. "Yes," Seinfeld said. "Is that not the tradition around here?")

The racing question, screamed from the audience, was: "Do you like NASCAR?"

Seinfeld heard it and paused. "Hmm," he said. "A little bit." Another long pause. "I like it more when I'm here [in Charlotte]."

You could almost see Seinfeld trying to think of something nice to say about the sport without being dishonest. He finally came up with: "I like the guy who does the backflips after he wins a race [Carl Edwards]. I like the burnouts they do when the race is over. And... well.... that's about it."

Cam Newton vs Tim Tebow Part II on Aug 26

The NFL preseason schedule was just announced for every NFL team and included was a whopper of a game for the Carolina Panthers, who play on the road against the New York Jets on Sunday, Aug.26th at 8 p.m. on NBC.

Yes, national TV, and Cam Newton vs. Tim Tebow. The two were briefly teammates at Florida, remember, where Newton was a mostly unknown backup and Tebow was the Heisman Trophy winner. Newton would later transfer to Auburn and win his own Heisman, and now Tebow has been traded to the New York Jets to back up Mark Sanchez.

The cool thing about this game is it's the third one on the schedule, which is traditionally the exhibition game in which NFL teams play their starters the most. So we'll see a lot of Cam and a fair amount of Tebow in that one, although Sanchez is still clearly the Jets' starter (for now). And we get the entertaining Jets coach Rex Ryan as a side dish.

Of the Panthers' four preseason games -- and the regular season schedule has not been announced yet -- only the Jets one has a specific day and time. The rest will officially be announced later. The full Panther preseason schedule is:

HOUSTON AT CAROLINA -- Somewhere from Aug.9-13... The Texans defense will give the Panthers' offense a good early test

MIAMI AT CAROLINA -- Somewhere from Aug.16-20....

CAROLINA AT N.Y. JETS -- Sunday, Aug.26th, 8 p.m., NBC national telecast

CAROLINA AT PITTSBURGH -- Either Aug.29 or Aug.30th (likely the 30th to give the Panthers a little more turnaround time)

We do know the Panthers will open the regular season on the road on Sept.9th or Sept.10th because of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte a few days before opening weekend.

Catching up with Panther tight end Greg Olsen

Greg Olsen and his mother Susan, a breast cancer survivor, at an event for Olsen's charitable foundation in 2010.

I caught up with Greg Olsen today and am preparing a long column on the Panther tight end for Thursday’s newspaper. In the meantime, a few highlights to whet your appetite:

-- Olsen’s foundation, www.ReceptionsforResearch.org, recently donated $50,000 locally to support breast cancer research and cancer patients. His mother Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 while he was in high school and her illness shook the family. Susan Olsen is now a 10-year cancer survivor and Olsen's three-year-old foundation has raised and then given away about $250,000 so far, he says.

“We always said if we were in position to raise money and awareness and help people like we got help back in 2001, we would try to do it,” Olsen said. “That’s the root of how we started the foundation. It’s taken off more than we’ve anticipated.” A charitable music event will be held to raise money for the foundation at Charlotte's Coyote Joe’s later this year and a huge adult kickball tournament in Chicago, where Olsen used to play for the Bears, is scheduled for June 30th.

-- Olsen, who caught 45 passes for 540 yards and five touchdowns in 2011 for Carolina, said he thought the Panthers’ offense could be much better in 2012 than it was last year. That’s no small statement – the Panthers ranked seventh in the NFL in yardage and tied for fifth in points last year.

“I think the results can be night and day,” Olsen said¸ citing the benefits of a full offseason for quarterback Cam Newton and the rest of the cast. “What we did last year was solid. People were excited. But we only won six games. We have to be realistic about what we accomplished last year…. I think this year can be a huge step for the whole organization.”

-- Olsen said he thought the New Orleans Saints had been punished justly for their bounty program, which included a bounty being put on Newton in 2011.

“I don’t think there’s really a place for it in the game,” Olsen said. “At the same time, we all understand what we sign up for. It’s a physical game. It’s a violent game. People get hurt. I don’t think because they put the bounty on guys they hit them any harder, or if there was no bounty would hit them easier. I don’t think once the game starts, you have time to process that…. But just for pure principle, I don’t believe it should be part of the game. I think that’s why the commissioner came down hard on them and I think deservedly so… With player safey being such a huge initiative, he almost didn’t have a choice.”

More coming from Olsen – including his thoughts about fellow tight end Jeremy Shockey likely not returning to the Panthers -- in Thursday’s newspaper.

Panthers to host FREE NFL draft party April 26th

The Panthers will open up Bank of America Stadium on Thursday, April 26th – the first night of the three-day NFL draft – for a free draft party for all fans.

The free event will take place from 5:30-10:30 p.m. both inside and outside the stadium. The draft party will include free tours of the team’s weightroom and a chance to get on the field for the Primetime Kids’ Combine, which will feature activities like field goal kicks and the quarterback/wide receiver challenge.

Some Panther players will also be available to sign autographs from 6-8 p.m. and mascot Sir Purr and the Panther cheerleaders will also be there. The first round of the draft itself will be telecast on the big screens inside the stadium and also outside the stadium in the Morehead Street parking lot – the Panthers currently hold the No.9 pick in the 2012 draft.

Food and beverages will not be free, but will also be available for purchase. Click here for more information

Keep Pounding makes Panther uniforms so much better

A photo of the "new" Panther uniform, modeled by DeAngelo Williams and taken from the Nike Football Facebook page. The words "Keep Pounding" will now be sewn into the collar of each Panther uniform.

You won't see it from the sideline. You won't see it on your HDTV. But you will know it is there, and that's what matters.

As we already knew, the Panthers' uniforms this season are basically not changing (see the picture above of DeAngelo Williams modeling the "new" Nike version of the uniform, which pretty much looks like the old Reebok version).

But there is one significant change -- the addition of the words "Keep Pounding," which are sewn into the jersey near the collar where the tag is. (The Panthers' official Twitter feed, @Panthers, first tweeted this news).

Putting those words into the jersey was a brilliant idea (Nike's marketing folks came up with it) and means that the legacy of the late Sam Mills will be woven into every Panther jersey from now on. Mills, who died of cancer in 2005, was a Panther linebacker, assistant coach and the truest gentleman the team has ever employed. He coached throughout the 2003 Super Bowl season despite regularly going to chemotherapy treatments and he made a famous speech in the locker room the night before the home playoff win over Dallas following the 2003 season.

At that point, everyone in the locker room knew Mills was battling cancer, but few had heard him describe that battle in much detail. Mills told the players in that speech (later described by many of them as the best pregame speech they had ever heard):

"When I found out I had cancer, there were two things I could do -- quit or keep pounding. I'm a fighter. I kept pounding. You're fighters, too. Keep pounding."

Those words were eventually adopted by former Panther linebacker Mark Fields as well, who had his own cancer battle to fight. The two ended up doing a lot of good in the Carolinas raising money and awareness. (Fields, incidentally, is still alive but had to retire from the NFL due to cancer-related problems. At one point he was living in Arizona and had some legal issues -- he has declined numerous requests over the years from The Observer to interview him since he left Charlotte).

But to me, those words will forever be identified with Mills and that speech. So while the Panther uniforms technically haven't changed much at all, this symbolic change was just what the players needed to see as they pulled on their game jerseys every Sunday.

Anthony Davis would not solve every Bobcat problem but he would be quite a start

OK, so the Charlotte Bobcats are probably going to have a 25 percent chance of getting Kentucky big man Anthony Davis in the 2012 NBA draft. That assumes that 1) Davis comes out and 2) the Bobcats finish with the NBA's worst record, and I think both of those are pretty safe assumptions.

So, a 1-in-4 chance. That's a lot better odds than the $640-million multi-state lottery from last week, but to put it another way, the Bobcats have a 75 percent chance of NOT getting Davis.

Let's hypothetically say they do, though, rather than a still-good consolation prize like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist or Thomas Robinson (both of whom were playing Monday night, too).

If the Bobcats got Davis:

1) Their huge problem in defending the paint would be mostly solved. This is what Davis would bring right away. Bismack Biyombo is a poor man's Davis at this point in his career -- a similar skill set, but not quite as good as Davis at blocking shots or rebounding or handling the ball. I like Biz, but he can't do it alone underneath. But if they could both play down low at the same time, each coming over for help-side defense blocks, the Bobcats' D immediately becomes a force.

2) They still would have problems scoring. You saw Davis's 1-for-10 shooting night Monday. He had only six points, but still was the game's most dominant player with 16 rebounds, six blocks, five assists and three steals.

The most flattering comparison Davis ever gets is the one to the Boston Celtics' Bill Russell, who also wasn't a natural big-time scorer but won a ton of championships because he was the NBA's best defensive player ever AND he had a lot of teammates who could score. The Bobcats have some players who can score sometimes (D.J. Augustin, Gerald Henderson, Corey Maggette, Kemba Walker). But they would still be lacking a go-to-when-it's-money-time scorer.

3) They would sell a lot more tickets. Davis would continue the Bobcats' youth movement and, as the No.1 pick, could become the face of the franchise if he was good enough. He would give the team more of an identity. But he wouldn't be an immediate, now-they-are-in-the-playoffs fix (see John Wall, Washington -- he couldn't move the win needle much in Washington either).

Still, Davis would make them loads better than they are. He would intimidate people inside and his mere presence would allow the Bobcats' shooters to get more open shots. It would be a whole lot of fun.

But first, those 1-in-4 (at best) odds are going to have to pay off.

Panthers start rolling out new logo (new jerseys ready April 15)

An example of the Panthers' new Nike merchandise.


In the past 24 hours, the Panthers' website has started to offer Nike apparel featuring new T-shirts that include Carolina's new logo and the Nike swoosh -- see the above for one example. Most are $25 to $32.

Nike has taken over jersey manufacturing from Reebok this year for all of the NFL, which at one point led to a lot of speculation that the Panthers would radically change their jersey. After all, they are changing their logo (a story this blog broke with the following post, which remains the No.1 all-time post on "Scott Says" in terms of hits by a very wide margin. Why? I'm not sure. A lot more people are interested in logos than I thought).

The new Nike jerseys featuring the new Panthers logo are available for pre-order on April 15th on the Panthers' website, but don't hold your breath trying to get one anytime soon. The Panthers' website also notes that they won't actually be shipped until April 26th (the first day of the 2012 NFL draft), nor does it give a price for the new jerseys.

Panther New Era hats are also available for pre-order now at NFLshop.com -- here are a few examples. The site warns, however, that if you order a hat today it may not leave the warehouse for three weeks.

Now the Panther jerseys are not undergoing any significant changes -- in fact team owner Jerry Richardson personally told one Panther fan in February that the uniforms won't be changing in his lifetime (although the helmets will be slightly altered this year to accommodate the new logo).

So don't despair if you've got the old stuff -- it will fit in just fine. I bought one of my kids a Cam Newton//Reebok jersey for Christmas last year, and believe me, he will be wearing that one for awhile since it was $85. For those who can't wait to buy the latest and greatest, however, it's worth checking out the Panthers' website.

It's something to do, anyway, as we wait for the draft that is now just over three weeks away. It also won't be long until the 2012 NFL schedule is announced and we see, among other things, when John Fox and Peyton Manning will be visiting Charlotte for the Broncos at Panthers game.