The Carolina Panthers will play in Super Bowl 50 in front of about 120 million people on Sunday.
Thursday, at their last day of media availability before the game, the players weren’t the main attraction like they will be this weekend.
Da, da, da, da, da, it’s the motherf****** D-O-Double-G, Snoop Dogg!
Snoop Dogg stole the show at Panthers media today. Follow @MileHighSports for a lot more stuff from me there today. pic.twitter.com/J0Q4lvGIXb
— Will Petersen (@PetersenWill) February 4, 2016
Snoop (as Peyton Manning called him earlier in the day) was working as a correspondent for the Rich Eisen show, interviewing players from both the Broncos and the Panthers. Snoop’s presence seemed to revitalize the brash, yet slightly lethargic Panthers, who led by their QB Cam Newton were officially burned out on the media about two days ago.
Snoop interviewed a slew of Carolina players, and attracted quite the crowd of reporters as well. At one point I witnessed Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart (a legitimate Super Bowl MVP candidate Sunday) sitting by himself, apparently not needed to answer any more questions. On the other side of the room was Snoop, simply walking from one interview to the next with about 15 cameramen trailing him.
But the reality is Snoop will be just a blip on the radar this week when we look back on it; a fun sideshow in a week full of them.
Someone who won’t be a blip on the radar is whoever does indeed win Super Bowl 50 MVP, forever going down in history as the star of one of the biggest football games ever played.
A likely candidate to win it in a low scoring, defensive battle type of game two weeks ago would have been Panthers All-Pro linebacker Thomas Davis, but then he broke his arm in the NFC Championship Game against the Arizona Cardinals. The Broncos are lucky to avoid that guy Sunday.
Hold up *Snoop Dogg voice*.
Davis got 11 or 12 screws and a metal plate put in his arm the day after the injury occurred (10 days ago) and apparently is good to play in Super Bowl 50. My goodness.
Davis, a longtime member of the Panthers, had the best year of his career in 2015, posting 75 tackles, 5.5 sacks and four interceptions while being an intricate part of one of football’s most opportunistic defenses.
But here’s the elephant in the room: Thomas won’t take a hit on that arm until he makes his first tackle on Sunday. How the arm responds will be a total mystery — that seems obvious. Yet Davis doesn’t seem concerned.
“I’m not worried about it. I know I’ll have so much adrenaline going through me that I probably won’t even feel anything,” Davis said Thursday.
So I had to ask him, is he comprehending just how wild this really is? The guy broke his freakin’ arm and had major surgery a week and a half ago.
“Trust me. I know how crazy this is. But when it comes down to it just being a pain tolerance thing, the arm is fixed. I’ve got a plate and some screws that are going to protect the arm. If it comes down to it, if it gets banged, it’s going to hurt a little bit and be a little sore, but I can deal with that,” Davis said.
Davis’ partner in crime and the other Panthers star linebacker, Luke Kuechly, echoed a similar sentiment.
“For me it’s not as crazy as it is for other people. What he’s been through, his competitive nature and his will to win and play to help the team, it’s just not a surprise to me. I remember talking to him and he’s like ‘they’re just going to put a plate and a screw in my arm and I’m good.’ Alright, let’s go,” Kuechly said.
To Davis’ credit he did acknowledge that if the arm didn’t respond well, or if he was simply in too much pain, he’d “pull himself off the field”, but neither he nor Kuechly really seems to think that’s a possibility.
Maybe I’m underestimating Davis, but until C.J. Anderson, Owen Daniels or someone else on the Broncos drives their helmet into his arm while finishing a play the reality is Davis has no idea.
His attitude about the situation is commendable; the guy wants to play in the game of his life and is convinced he will. He’ll certainly start it, but will he finish it? And could he ultimately hurt his team if he plays but isn’t really himself? There’s a bit of a gamble involved here.
But in the words of Snoop Dogg, “Takin’ chances while we dancin’ in the party for sure.”
Let’s see if Davis’ chance pays off on Super Sunday.